Quote of the Day (Andre Dubus, on Bringing ‘Everything You Have’ to Writing)

“[W]hether the particular pages of a particular day are good or not, there is still you, all of you, bringing to that work and that day everything you have. And when you’re doing that, you’re a writer.”—American short-story writer and essayist Andre Dubus (1936-1999), “In Writing, Persistence is Key,” The Writer, January 1968, reprinted August 2008

Quote of the Day (Andre Dubus, on Shyness at School)

“Proportion is all; and, in sports at school, I lost it by surrendering to the awful significance of my self-consciousness. Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.”— American short story writer, essayist, novelist and memoirist Andre Dubus (1936-1999), “Under the Lights,” in Broken Vessels (1991)