from Jeannie

Here are some of the gems I collected. (I didn't bother repeating all of those excellent Parker Palmer quotes that Irwin gave us!)

AVI
- "You live by asking questions; you die if you live only by answers."

WALLY LAMB:
- Don't write for an audience; write for yourself. Investigate your own truths.

LAWRENCE DORR:
- "Don't listen to anyone who writes about 'hooks'. This is communication, not fishing!"

KATE DI CAMILLO:
- Literature helps us bear the "nearly unbearable."
- "The sound of a single voice singing or reading is able to lift someone else up off the ground."
- Can't "bully" the story. Wait. Keep your eyes & mind & heart open. Pay attention to what resonates. Pray a lot.

PARKER PALMER:
- "The biggest enemy of our highest values is the institutions in which those values are housed."
- "I don't want to know your conclusions; I want to know your journey. Maybe we can walk together."
- "Do we discover, or do we invent? Yes."

LUCI SHAW:
- "Wherever you find beauty, you'll also find meaning and significance."

JAMES SCHAAP:
- All fiction is "what if". A Christian writer is a prophet of hope.

BARBARA NICOLOSI:
- on "redemptive" films: "A redemptive film redeems the audience. Characters can be damned as long as the audience is redeemed."

DONNA FREITAS:
- To write about her sadness, had to feel like "the warrior girl holding a sword, battling the monster." "When you're ready to slay those monsters, you'll hear the voice you need."
- On writing as therapy: for her, writing was "disarming the bomb. I'll never be alone in this again."