Carol Bly

The secret of literature, which conventional people don't guess, is that writers are forever looking for the surprising revelation - not for…

— Carol Bly

The more original a short-story writer, the odder looking the assortment of things he or she puts together for a story.

— Carol Bly

The principle of literature is devotion to the particulars of life.

— Carol Bly

No work of literature is the product of only one or two conscious ideas. A story is mysteriously dense of meaning.

— Carol Bly

Emily was feeling the elation of conscientious hosts when they can temporarily escape a ubiquitous houseguest.

— Carol Bly

For a short-story writer, a story is the combination of what the writer supposed the story would likely be about - plus…

— Carol Bly

An essay is a work of literary art which has a minimum of one anecdote and one universal idea.

— Carol Bly

There isn't a thought or feeling that doesn't alter or deepen when written. We are a writing animal. That is why all…

— Carol Bly

Unlike lions and dogs, we are a dissenting animal. We need to dissent in the same way that we need to travel,…

— Carol Bly

Literature has low enough standards. But we can avoid writing the worst literature if we make ourselves ask ourselves, every two or…

— Carol Bly

The six and one-fourth hours' television watching (the American average per day) which non-reading children do is what is called alpha-level learning.…

— Carol Bly

I don't engage in self-censorship. But I do change everybody to have red hair in the last draft. ... If you give…

— Carol Bly

“It is very difficult to teach navigation theory to someone who clings to the shore.”

— Carol Bly

“Here is the crux of it: between the conscious and unconscious mind we are more complex and given to concept than we…

— Carol Bly

No one is shallow and vulgar forever; sooner or later the whole species likes to be profound.

— Carol Bly

your soul needs to be lonely so that its strangest elements can moil about, curl and growl and jump, fail and get…

— Carol Bly

Apprenticeship is one of the dearest roles of childhood, not just watching Dad or Mother, but being taught a hands-on trade.

— Carol Bly