Yashvardhan Jain

There may be many instructions out there for how or why to keep a diary or waste book or whatever, but my sense is that when a writer keeps a journal, its main benefit is not increased productivity or emotional balance or even practice for our rapidly degrading handwriting—for a writer, keeping a journal or otherwise writing sentences and... See more

[I]n order to write a book, do a deed, paint a picture with some life in it, one has to be alive oneself. And so, unless you never want to progress, study is a matter of very secondary importance for you. Enjoy yourself as much as you can, have as many diversions as you can, and remember that what people demand in art nowadays is something very... See more

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

Lamott writes, “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.”

When there’s too much to care about, what’s a good-hearted person to do?

Françoise Sagan’s Paris Review interview is worth reading in its entirety. I especially enjoyed this exchange:

Is it possible that novels get written because the novelist imagines himself in the role of a novelist writing a novel?

No, one assumes the role of hero and then seeks out “the novelist” who can write his story.

And one always finds the

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“To a Young Writer” was written at the bequest of an editor; but as I was writing it, I realized that it is essentially a letter to my own younger self. “Write your heart out”—“Don’t be discouraged”—“Read widely, and without apology.” This is still my advice to myself—as to all the “young” and “not-so-young” writers out there.