the art of writing

There are two kinds of writing; alive writing and dead writing. Alive writing invokes sensuousness, expansion, and insight. It transforms and enlarges its reader. It is a kind of disclosure; simultaneously immanent and transcendent. Dead writing is passive, sentimental and afraid of telling the truth. It discloses nothing except its own... See more

I tell my students to liberate a certain part of their mind that, because they are good, humble people they may have likely suppressed, and that's the part that wants to be known, that wants to be famous or rich or whatever. I say that part is not entirely separate from the part of you that wants to be a great writer. Which is not separate from the... See more

I’ve done many things to earn a living over the decades—from playing the piano to problem-solving in foreign climes—but writing is now my main focus. And the writing draws on all these earlier experiences.

This is the challenge many young writers face. They need to experience life in order to write about it. But that takes time.

Grace Lin: She asks, Where do you get your ideas?

Mo Willems: Well, Leah, that's a very good question and I'm afraid you may not like the answer because ideas are not things you get. People tend to think that ideas are things like diamonds. And then you go out and you get them and you grab them and you bring them back. But that's not what ideas are.

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