Brenda Ueland
Brenda Ueland
Brenda Uelandwas a journalist, editor, freelance writer, and teacher of writing. She is best known for her book If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth24 October 1891
CountryUnited States of America
thinking two sometimes
Sometimes I think of life as a process where everybody is discouraging and taking everybody else down a peg or two.
ideas fountain knows
You do not know what is in you - an inexhaustible fountain of ideas.
self-esteem self trying
Try to discover your true, honest, untheoretical self.
writing ideas long
If you write, good ideas must come welling up into you so that you have something to write. If good ideas do not come at once, or for a long time, do not be troubled at all. Wait for them. Put down little ideas no matter how insignificant they are. But do not feel, any more, guilty about idleness and solitude.
cutting ideas people
These people who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato ideas, such as: "I see where I can make an annual cut of $3.47 in my meat budget." But they have no slow, big ideas.
communication writing garden
everyone who is human has something to express. Try not expressing yourself for twenty-four hours and see what happens. You will nearly burst. You will want to write a long letter, or draw a picture, or sing, or make a dress or a garden.
writing thinking editors
If you write something and they all tell you it is bad - editors, critics, everybody - think it over and you may become convinced that they are right (though you are not to be ashamed or discouraged for a minute, but keep on writing).
writing diaries honest
Write a true, careless, slovenly impulsive, honest diary every day of your life.
husband creative impulsive
Families are great murderers of the creative impulsive, particularly husbands.
listening doe beloved
And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective and learns more and does more good
talking listening roles
We should all know this: that listening, not talking, is the gifted and great role, and the imaginative role.
thinking power forever
Think of yourself as an incandescent power, illuminated and perhaps forever talked to by God and his messengers.
people advice listening
Who are the people, for example, to whom you go for advice? Not to the hard, practical ones who can tell you exactly what to do, but to the listeners; that is, the kindest, least censorious, least bossy people you know. It is because by pouring out your problem to them, you then know what to do about it yourself.
mother children doors
If you would shut your door against the children for an hour a day and say: 'Mother is working on her five-act tragedy in blank verse!' you would be surprised how they would respect you. They would probably all become playwrights.