on writing - susan sontag

The only story that seems worth writing is a cry, a shot, a scream.  A story
should break the reader’s heart.  The story must strike a nerve — in me.
My heart should start pounding when I hear the first line in my head.
I start trembling at the risk.

One can never be alone enough to write.  To see better.

To be a great writer, know everything about adjectives & punctuation (rhythm),
and have moral intelligence, which creates true authority in a writer.

There is a great deal that either has to be given up or be taken away from
you if you are going to succeed in writing a body of work

The writer does not have to write. She must imagine that she must. A great book:
no one is addressed, it counts as cultural surplus, it comes from the will.

- Susan Sontag

By Sara Wilson