Beautiful Quote by Paul Auster
“When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing - if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go.”
About This Quote
Source Interview: The Art of Writing, Paul Auster, 2015
Prioritize the story above all; discard any prose that doesn’t serve the narrative.
In simple terms: Focus on story, cut irrelevant flourishes.
Key Takeaway
Eliminate nonessential language.
Themes
writing
discipline
prioritization
Mood
reflective
determined
Type
literary
instructional
When to use this quote
- novel drafting
- screenwriting
- academic essays
- blog posts
Key Concepts
narrative focus
editing
essentialism
Questions to Reflect On
- What elements truly serve your story?
- How do you balance beauty and relevance?
A Different Perspective
May sacrifice elegance for clarity, risking loss of stylistic richness.
![“Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. My three [great teachers] did not tell - they catalyzed a burning desire to know. Under their influence, the horizons sprung wide and fear went away and the unknown became knowable. But most important of…” quote by John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/84c/john-steinbeck-71_art_teaching-might-even-be-the-greatest-of-t_1738.jpg)
