Quote of the Day (Louise Erdrich, on Writing Within Limits)

“Limitations are a positive force in my life. I need them. When I am stuck, I often write within a form, to a deadline, or otherwise set up fences around what I can do. Perhaps the imposition of rules spurs me to break free. Writing a novel is always about establishing and then pushing against parameters." —American novelist and poet Louise Erdrich, “Soapbox: The Columnists—WSJ. Asks Five Luminaries To Weigh in on Single Topic; This Month: Limits,” WSJ., November 2017

(This photo of Louise Erdrich was taken in Rome on July 5, 2015 by Alessio Jacona.)

Quote of the Day (Louise Erdrich, on Why ‘You Have to Love’)

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.”—American novelist-poet Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum (2005)

(This photo of Louise Erdrich was taken in Rome on July 5, 2015 by Alessio Jacona.)