Forever Quote by Carol Bly

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

— 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 what actually…

— 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 of us…

— Carol Bly

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

— Carol Bly

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

— 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. The mind…

— 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 people red…

— Carol Bly