22nd July 2016 | for Creatives | creative process, artist integrity, Robert Olen Butler, writing, reaching your audience, value the art, acting |
"The so-called Stanislavsky Method rests on two principles: that the actor's body is an instrument that must be supple, strong, and prepared; and that craft is always secondary to the truth of emotional connection."
"I say this with great honesty: I always approach a book by writing about the thing that keeps me up at night. What is really waking me up or keeping me from falling asleep? What am I grappling with? And then I think, I cannot be the only one on this planet thinking about this right now. I can't be the only one worried about this. I start with whatever that experience is, and I just keep peeling it until it's more of the raw experience, and that's where I think fiction steps in."
"As an artist, you want as many people to see your work as possible with no compromise. .... I don't want to .... have it watered down, and follow a soap opera, and have all the edges filed down and have someone interfere. .... Delivering the exact thing that I made ... that's so important to me, you know, that's, I said, the ideal of the most beautiful and purest thing. And it's how little it can be ruined from your brain to the observer. And that's the way you do everything yourself, really, because, you know, I've probably only produced and directed to protect my writing, the idea, you know?"
"Act like a pro and charge money for your words or build your audience on social media where the only one profiting from your awesomeness is you, not some super-wealthy media mogul that's too cheap to pay writers."
"I think the word is fearless because once writers start editing how they do what they do or what they're writing about, I think you've already lost what you need to be doing. So I think being a writer is emotionally brave, and if you can't go there, maybe you're not ready to do it yet."
What is success in the 21st century? It's novels that invent their own unique form, spring from a personal place, enact a passionate intent, and prove it by reaching a broad readership. It's both great reviews and great sales. It's moving hearts and changing minds. It's winning accolades and winning the devotion of readers. It's finding a way through your fiction to convey what you alone see, yet we all come to accept as the truth.
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