Hitchcock on Pressing

“When we came up against a block [in screenwriting] and our discussions became very heated and intense, Hitchcock would suddenly stop and tell a story that had nothing to do with the work at hand. At first I was almost outraged. And then I discovered that he did this intentionally. He mistrusted working under pressure. He would say, “We’re pressing, we’re pressing. We’re working too hard. Relax; it will come.” And, of course, it finally always did.”

Hitchcock’s Writing Partner via Cleese

Severian on Stories and What’s Ours

“It often seems to me that of all the good things in the world, the only ones humanity can claim for itself are stories and music; the rest, mercy, beauty, sleep, clean water and hot food are all the work of the Increate. Thus, stories are small things indeed in the scheme of the universe, but it is hard not to love best what is our own—hard for me, at least.”

Severian ∞

Annie Dillard on Spending it All

“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all. Shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things will fill from behind, from beneath, like water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

Annie Dillard

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