Hemingway, King, Bradbury, and the Magic of Writing

Three Point Thursday | 3 Timeless Maxims

To curious minds,

Happy Three Point Thursday.

Here’s 3 quotes I’m thinking about:

---

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”

—Ernest Hemingway

---

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

—Stephen King

---

“If you can’t read and write you can’t think. Your thoughts are dispersed if you don't know how to read and write. You’ve got to be able to look at your thoughts on paper and discover what a fool you were.”

—Ray Bradbury

---

When wandering around Rome I found myself at a cafe near the train station. I sat down and remembered why it’s best stay away from places on the main roads. “Tourist traps”. It was busy to a gross extent. Noisy. And sitting outside—though it was 10 am—people were blowing cigarette smoke in each other’s eye balls.

But I knew how to get away from it all. I had my pen and journal with me.

Italians were dramatically gesticulating all around but I couldn’t hear them. Cars were whizzing by me and shaking the table but I didn’t feel it much. I had already slipped into a different world.

This is one beauty of writing. It makes you forget about everything—everything that isn’t the stories and ideas being transferred from your brain into ink.

Just write it down. Pen to paper. Whatever “it” is for you.