Literary Birthday – 18 July – Elizabeth Gilbert

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Gilbert, born 18 July 1969.

Seven Quotes

  1. There are times when the only access I have to the truest person that I am is when I’m alone and trying to solve a sentence. It’s exciting, even when it’s frustrating, even when I can’t do it right.
  2. Creativity itself doesn’t care at all about results – the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless.
  3. I was a writer before Eat, Pray, Love, and I’ll be a writer after it’s over. It’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.
  4. If I could read while I was driving, showering, socialising or sleeping, I would do it.
  5. It’s not an accident that both my sister and I are writers. Our parents created an accidental Petri dish. My family has great storytellers, and I grew up in a very funny, conversational house and didn’t have television. This small family farm was a bubble world that didn’t have much to do with reality.
  6. Despite having written five books, I worry that I have not written the right kinds of books, or that perhaps I have dedicated too much of my life to writing, and have therefore neglected other aspects of my being.
  7. My writing practice taught me the important thing is steadfastness. It’s not necessarily discipline. Discipline can become a prison. When your spiritual practices become another thing for you to be anxious about, they’ve lost their usefulness.

Elizabeth Gilbert is an American author. She is best known for writing Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

Source for Image: Elizabeth Gilbert Photo credit: Barry Sutton

 by Amanda Patterson

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Posted on: 18th July 2013
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