Brenda Ueland Quotes

The imagination needs moodling,
long, inefficient happy idling, dawdling and puttering. ~ Brenda Ueland

It is when you are really living in the present-working, thinking, lost, absorbed in something you care about very much, that you are living spiritually. ~ Brenda Ueland

I know that we live after death and again and again, not in the memory of our children, or as a mulch for trees and flowers, however poetic that may be, but looking passionately and egocentrically out of our eyes. ~ Brenda Ueland

You do not know what is in you - an inexhaustible fountain of ideas. ~ Brenda Ueland

Be bold, free, and truthful. ~ Brenda Ueland

Advertising companies hire the very brightest, wittiest young people to write for them. Not one single sentence of it is worth repeating. Why? Because it wasn't meant. ~ Brenda Ueland

Write a true, careless, slovenly impulsive, honest diary every day of your life. ~ Brenda Ueland

If I did not wear torn pants, orthopedic shoes, frantic disheveled hair, that is to say, if I did not tone down my beauty, people would go mad. Married men would run amuck. ~ Brenda Ueland

The only way to become a better writer is to become a better person. ~ Brenda Ueland

Creative power flourishes only when I am living in the present. ~ Brenda Ueland

The great artists ... do not want security, egoistic or materialistic. ~ Brenda Ueland

At least I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had. Not to preach to them, but to give it to them if they cared to hear it. ~ Brenda Ueland

We have come to think that duty should come first. I disagree. Duty should be a by-product. Writing, the creative effort, the use of the imagination, should come first – at least, for some part of every day of your life. It is a wonderful blessing if you use it. You will become happier, more enlightened, alive, impassioned, light-hearted and generous to everybody else. Even your health will improve. Colds will disappear and all the other ailments of discouragement and boredom. ~ Brenda Ueland

At last I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had. ~ Brenda Ueland

Families are great murderers of the creative impulsive, particularly husbands. ~ Brenda Ueland

Don't think of yourself as an intestinal tract and tangle of nerves in the skull, that will not work unless you drink coffee. Think of yourself as incandescent power, illuminated perhaps and forever talked to by God and his messengers ... Think if Tiffany's made a mosquito, how wonderful we would think it was! ~ Brenda Ueland

Don't always be appraising yourself, wondering if you are better or worse than other writers. "I will not Reason and Compare," said Blake; "my business is to Create." Besides, since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of Time, you are incomparable. ~ Brenda Ueland

When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life. ~ Brenda Ueland

We like fixed rules because that ends thinking and we can rest. But there is no resting place down here. ~ Brenda Ueland

Writing is the action of thinking, just as drawing is the action of seeing and composing music is the action of hearing. ~ Brenda Ueland

It is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come. ~ Brenda Ueland

All children have creative power. ~ Brenda Ueland

We are always afraid to start something that we want to make very good, true, and serious. ~ Brenda Ueland

The writer has a feeling and utters it from his true self. The reader reads it and is immediately infected and has exactly the same feeling. This is the whole secret of enchantment and fascination. ~ Brenda Ueland

In fact that is why the lives of most women are so vaguely unsatisfactory. They are always doing secondary and menial things (that do not require all their gifts and ability) for others and never anything for themselves. Society and husbands praise them for it (when they get too miserable or have nervous breakdowns) though always a little perplexedly and half-heartedly and just to be consoling. The poor wives are reminded that that is just why wives are so splendid -- because they are so unselfish and self-sacrificing and that is the wonderful thing about them! But inwardly women know that something is wrong. They sense that if you are always doing something for others, like a servant or nurse, and never anything for yourself, you cannot do others any good. You make them physically more comfortable. But you cannot affect them spiritually in any way at all. For to teach, encourage, cheer up, console, amuse, stimulate or advise a husband or children or friends, you have to be something yourself. [...]"If you would shut your door against the children for an hour a day and say; 'Mother is working on her five-act tragedy in blank verse!' you would be surprised how they would respect you. They would probably all become playwrights. ~ Brenda Ueland

Consistency is the horror of the world. ~ Brenda Ueland

Your motto: Be Bold, Be Free, Be Truthful. ~ Brenda Ueland

To paint with oil paints for the first time ... is like trying to make something exquisitely accurate and microscopically clear out of mud pies with boxing gloves on. ~ Brenda Ueland

So remember these two things: you are talented and you are original. Be sure of that. I say this because self-trust is one of the very most important things in writing ... ~ Brenda Ueland

In true courage there is always an element of choice, of an ethical choice, and of anguish, and also of action and deed. There is always a flame of spirit in it, a vision of some necessity higher than oneself. ~ Brenda Ueland

Who are the people, for example, to whom you go for advice? Not to the hard, practical ones who can tell you exactly what to do, but to the listeners; that is, the kindest, least censorious, least bossy people you know. It is because by pouring out your problem to them, you then know what to do about it yourself. ~ Brenda Ueland

If you write, good ideas must come welling up into you so that you have something to write. If good ideas do not come at once, or for a long time, do not be troubled at all. Wait for them. Put down little ideas no matter how insignificant they are. But do not feel, any more, guilty about idleness and solitude. ~ Brenda Ueland

Work freely and rollickingly as though you were talking to a friend who loves you. Mentally (at least three or four times a day) thumb your nose at all know-it-alls, jeerers, critics, doubters. ~ Brenda Ueland

They cannot understand that the figure of a laborer - some furrows in a plowed field, a bit of sand, sea and sky - are serious objects, so difficult but at the same time so beautiful, that it is indeed worth while to devote one's life to the task of expressing the poetry hidden in them. ~ Brenda Ueland

You must become aware of the richness in you and come to believe in it and know it is there, so that you can write opulently and with self-trust. If you once become aware of it and have faith in it, you will be all right. ~ Brenda Ueland

We are too ready (women especially) not to stand by what we have said or done. ~ Brenda Ueland

You can write anything you want to,
a six-act blank verse, symbolic tragedy or a vulgar short, short story. Just so that you write it with honesty and gusto, and do not try to make somebody believe that you are smarter than you are. What's the use? You can never be smarter than you are. ~ Brenda Ueland

Remember William Blake who said: "Improvement makes straight, straight roads, but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius."
The truth is, life itself, is always startling, strange, unexpected. But when the truth is told about it everybody knows at once that it is life itself and not made up.
But in ordinary fiction, movies, etc, everything is smoothed out to seem plausible
villains made bad, heroes splendid, heroines glamorous, and so on, so that no one believes a word ~ Brenda Ueland

People who try to boss themselves always want (however kindly) to boss other people. They always think they know best and are so stern and resolute about it they are not very open to new and better ideas. ~ Brenda Ueland

I readan article by a highly educated man wherein he told with what conscientious pains he had brought up all his children tobe skeptical of everything, never to believe anything in life or religion or their own feelings without submitting it to many rational doubts, to have a persistent, thoroughly skeptical, doubting attitude toward everything ... I think he might as well have taken them out in the backyard and killed them with an ax. ~ Brenda Ueland

To have the external pressure of a job removed is very astonishing. Your own will is now your only motor and it has no horse-power. Sometimes I think that perhaps the most competent business men, and lawyers and doctors, who must be at the office at nine o'clock every morning, do not realize this and take more credit for initiative and industry than they deserve. And it is why all the bright women of the world, who if more were expected of them, might do important work, but who instead have a chronic feeling of ineffectiveness and sloth. ~ Brenda Ueland

You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end-much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you. ~ Brenda Ueland

No writing is a waste of time – no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good. ~ Brenda Ueland

The only way to write well, so that people believe what we say and are interested or touched by it, is to slough off all pretentiousness and attitudinizing. ~ Brenda Ueland

Everyone knows how people who laugh easily create us by their laughter,
making us think of funnier and funnier things. ~ Brenda Ueland

Orthodox criticism ... is a murderer of talent. And because the most modest and sensitive people are the most talented, having the most imagination and sympathy, these are the first ones to get killed off. ~ Brenda Ueland

We start out in our lives as little children, full of light and the clearest vision. ~ Brenda Ueland

By encouraging the critic in themselves (the hater) they have killed the artist (the lover). ~ Brenda Ueland

If you are never satisfied with what you write, that is a good sign. It means that your vision can see so far that it's hard to come up to it. Again I say - the only unfortunate people are the glib ones, immediately satisfied with their work. To them, the ocean is only knee-deep. ~ Brenda Ueland

Sometimes I think of life as a process where everybody is discouraging and taking everybody else down a peg or two. ~ Brenda Ueland

Strength to your sword arm! ~ Brenda Ueland

If you write something and they all tell you it is bad - editors, critics, everybody - think it over and you may become convinced that they are right (though you are not to be ashamed or discouraged for a minute, but keep on writing). ~ Brenda Ueland

When I am really alone some power seems to grow in me ... Conjugality made me think of a three-legged race, where two people cannot go fast and keep tripping each other because their two legs are tied together. ~ Brenda Ueland

Inspiration comes to us slowly and quietly . prime it with a little solitude. ~ Brenda Ueland

Inspiration does not come like a blot, nor is it kinetic energy striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly all the time. ~ Brenda Ueland

And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective and learns more and does more good ~ Brenda Ueland

But the great artists like Michelangelo and Blake and Tolstoi
like Christ whom Blake called an artist because he had one of the most creative imaginations that ever was on earth
do not want security, egoistic or materialistic. Why, it never occurs to them. "Be not anxious for the morrow," and "which of you being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?"
So they dare to be idle, i.e. not to be pressed and duty-driven all the time. They dare to love people even when they are very bad, and they dare not to try and dominate others to show them what they must do for their own good. ~ Brenda Ueland

Of course, in fairness, I must remind you of this: that we writers are the most lily-livered of all craftsmen. We expect more, for the most peewee efforts, than any other people. ~ Brenda Ueland

If only I had a wife!" I used to think, "who could stay home and keep the children happy, why I could support six of them. A cinch. ~ Brenda Ueland

Try to discover your true, honest, untheoretical self. ~ Brenda Ueland

If we don't act at all (express our imaginings either in work or a changing personality, so that we can learn and think again something better) we certainly rot. ~ Brenda Ueland

You know, I have come to think listening is love, that's what it really is. ~ Brenda Ueland

I will tell you what I have learned myself. For me, a long five- or six-mile walk helps. And one must go alone and every day. I have done this for many years. It is at these times I seem to get re-charged. If I do not walk one day, I seem to have on the next what van Gogh calls "the meagerness.""The meagerness," he said, "or what is called depression." After a day or two of not walking, when I try to write I feel a little dull and irresolute. For a long time I thought that the dullness was just due to the asphyxiation of an indoor, sedentary life (which all people who do not move around a great deal in the open air suffer from, though they do not know it). ~ Brenda Ueland

I was a black singer with a white voice, a perfect pop voice. ~ Brenda Holloway

When artists and philosophers talk only amongst themselves, they ignore the potential of popular culture to become a variety of dialogues with and between everyday people. Its discourse may be productive of desire and pleasure, but popular culture is also a language in which people discuss politics, religion, ethics, and action. ~ Brenda Laurel

A secret sweeter than the soul can whisper, I shall love you forever. ~ Brenda J. Webb

That's easy; shape shifting ability." His blue eyes twinkled ~ Brenda Pandos

No matter how far you are in a tunnel there will always be light at the end ~ Brenda Cas

Coming from The Disney Channel, anything I do is going to offend somehow, somewhere, somehow. ~ Brenda Song

A writer is never just looking out of a window or staring into space. They are building a universe to share with the world ~ Brenda Ashworth Barry

As I string, a swift rhythm is played out with my hands, a cadence known only to those who have strung tobacco. To many of the poor workers, the meter and rhythm of stringing tobacco is the only poetry they've ever known. ~ Brenda Sutton Rose

Unconditional love is a love that says to a child, "I love who you are no matter what, even though I may not ~ Brenda Schaeffer

The game business arose from computer programs that were written by and for young men in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They worked so well that they formed a very lucrative industry fairly quickly. But what worked for that demographic absolutely did not work for most girls and women. ~ Brenda Laurel

I saw that all aspects of my life had been pulling me out of balance because I hadn't perceived them as part of a "whole," or the totality that was "me." ~ Brenda Strong

In dying we are born to eternal life ~ Brenda Ritter

Not long after my mom died, my dad pretty much kicked me out of the house. He never said, "Get out of my house," but instead, I came home one night to find all my clothes scattered all over our front lawn. ~ Brenda Perlin

You done decided you want to go to the dance yet Brenda?" "Didn't I tell you that dances was lame?" "What's lame about them?" "I like mature niggas." "I'm not a nigga." "What are you?" "An African American." "Well I don't like African Americans. I like niggas. ~ Vincent Morris

What is so frightening about [writing]? I still don't know. Perhaps it's the horrible knowledge that no matter how well you write, the resultant product will never correlate exactly to the truth, will never arrive with quite the melodious voice you hear in the acoustic cavity of your mind. ~ Brenda Miller

I had long since managed a degree of detachment when dealing with photographs from homicide cases. They no longer upset me as they once did, although I make it a point not to dwell on them. By the time I stood in Shirley Lewis's office, I had seen thousands of body pictures. I had seen pictures of Kathy Devine and Brenda Baker in Thurston County, but that was months before it was known there was a "Ted." Of course, there were no bodies to photograph in the other Washington cases, and I had had no access to Colorado or Utah pictures. Now, I was staring down at huge color photographs of the damage done to girls young enough to be my daughters - at pictures of damage alleged to be the handiwork of a man I thought I knew. That man who only minutes before had smiled the same old grin at me, and shrugged as if to say, "I have no part of this." It hit me with a terrible sickening wave. I ran to the ladies' room and threw up. ~ Ann Rule

Writing is not a choice for me, it is a calling. ~ Brenda B. Taylor

I've spent an awful lot of my time in the air. I've had everything happen to me in a plane that could happen. Except a crash. ~ Brenda Lee

We absolutely need diversity [in game designers]. And not just diversity of gender, but diversity of cultures, of ethnicity, of sexuality. If we want to reach beyond the audience we have we've got to bring in more players, and to bring in more players we've got to bring in people who might be able to reach those players. ~ Brenda Romero

The one thing I've learned about family skeletons is that they always have a way of finding the light of day and ending up at the neighborhood garage sale. Alora from The Sapphire Talisman ~ Brenda Pandos

We, the privileged majority, talk about equality until it comes to our family having to give up something ~ Brenda Vicars

Nice to meet you," Brenda replied, I'm a Crank. I'm slowly getting crazy. I keep wanting to chew off my own fingers and randomly kill people. Thomas here promised to save me." Though she was obviously joking, she didn't even crack a smile.

Thomas had to hide a wince. "Funny, Brenda."

"Glad to see you still have a sense of humor about it," Teresa said. But her face could've turned water to ice. ~ James Dashner

Look Jane!" Brenda nudged her daughter. "Look who's over there!"
"Damn!" Jane had smudged the fingernail she'd been painting. A tiny frown of exasperation marred her pretty face. Then she brightened as she saw him – Richard from accounts, jostling at the bar with the rest of the lunchtime crowd. "What's he doing here?" she wondered aloud. "Wouldn't have thought this was his scene."
"Don't be silly!" Brenda admonished. "It's a hot day. Lots of people fancy a cold lager with their lunch. It's perfectly natural." She sometimes despaired at her daughter's lack of insight. How could such a pretty girl be so empty-headed? And when would Jane ever find a steady boyfriend? Brenda had high hopes for Richard in this direction. He was old enough to be a good influence; brilliantly clever; in line for promotion – he would be perfect for Jane.
"Call him over, Mum!" Jane suggested excitedly. ~ Bernie Morris

I know my husband. He died with God's name on his lips if anybody's. He always loved his work more than me." (Kate) "Then he was a fool," the captain said with such bitterness that she felt sorry for him, too. "No. He was not a fool," she said. "And he loved me. I know he did. He just belonged to God. I only borrowed him for a time." (p.383) ~ Brenda Rickman Vantrease

Sounds to me like you're praying Violet, not wishing. When we wish, it's usually for something frivolous...Something not serious. Like what you want for your birthday. Prayers are for more serious things." -Mom ~ Brenda Woods

It is never too late to go quietly to our lakes, rivers, oceans, even our small streams, and say to the sea gulls, the great blue herons, the bald eagles, the salmon, that we are sorry. ~ Brenda Peterson

Kindness isn't so difficult, when the object is worthy. ~ Brenda Hiatt

I'm Perfect at Feelings,

so I have no problem telling you

why you cried over the third lost

metal or the mousetrap. I knew

that orgasms weren't your fault

and that feeling of keeping solid

in yourself but wanting an ecstatic

black hole was just bad beauty.



Certain loves were perfect

in the daytime and had every

right to express carnally behind

the copy machine and there are

no hard feelings for the boozy

sodomy and sorry XX daisy chain,

whenever it felt right for you.



And when the moment of soft

levitation with erasing hands

made you feel dirty, like

the main person to think up love

in the first place, I knew that.

It's okay, you're an innocent

with the brilliance of an animal

stuffing yourself sick on a kill.

Don't, don't feel like the runt alien

on my ship: I get you. I know

the dimensions of your wishing

and losing and don't think you

a glutton with petty beefs. But

even I, who know your triggers,



your emblematic sacs of sad fury,

I understand why the farthest fat trees

sliver down with your disappointment

and why the big sense of the world,

wrong before you, shrugs but

somewhere grasps your spinning,

stunning, alone. But you have me. ~ Brenda Shaughnessy

The wind whirls and whistles and strip pink blooms from the mimosas, scatters twigs, broken limbs, pine needles and pine cones across our yard, and robs the pecan trees of a thousand leaves. The storm eventually dies, but the bruised trees continue to weep into the night, still shimmering with dewy leaves when the sun comes up the next morning. ~ Brenda Sutton Rose

I got dragged to Hell by demons from the dawn of time. While I was down there, I killed monsters and became a hit man for the devil's friends. How have you been?" The guy's smile curdles. He takes a step back. "Don't let me catch you hanging around the halls anymore, okay? I'll have to call the manager." "No problem, Brenda. You have an extra cigarette?" "My name's Phil." "You have an extra cigarette, Chet?" He walks away and gets a good twenty feet before he mumbles "Fuck you," sure I can't hear him. ~ Richard Kadrey

I am proud to be an African. ~ Brenda Fassie

The Swartzentruber Order is the most conservative on the Amish spectrum. Amish people have differences just like any culture. ~ Brenda Nixon

The sense that my world is stable and stationary, that change will never come and that all will go on continuously as it is, is the nature of all delusion. ~ Brenda Shoshanna

When you scratch these guitars, they bleed. ~ Brenda Sutton Rose