Thursday, November 01, 2012

A great quote about how writing improves the quality of one's life, especially the life of the mind. This link is to The Daily Dish but the post there is a chain of recommendations. Follow it to the original if you want to read more.

When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular I’ll remember everything better; everything will mean more to me. That’s because everything I perceive will unconsciously engage on its way in with the substance of my preoccupation. A preoccupation, in that sense, is a hell of a useful thing for a mind.