Alan Garner Quotations

... I had never given much credence to the phenomenon of "writer's block". I was more inclined to think of it as "writer's impatience", and to follow Arthur Koestler's dictum: "Soak; and wait.

The job of a storyteller is to speak the truth. But what we feel most deeply can’t be spoken in words alone. At this level, only images connect. And here, story becomes symbol; symbol is myth. And myth is truth.

When you start, the world of publishing seems like a great cathedral citadel of talent, resisting attempts to let you inside. It isn't like that at all. It may be more difficult now, and take longer than when I started to write, but there's a great, empty warehouse out there looking for simple talent.

Hitting the gym to release stress is not nearly as effective as hitting the people that cause the stress to begin with.

I'll buy metaphor, but simile's a cop-out used by scaredycats who won't commit to anything. Simile's for cowards.

When a monkey nibbles on a weenis, it's funny in any language.

Possessive parents rarely live long enough to see the fruits of their selfishness.

If you are going to write, nothing will stop you, and if you are not going to write, nothing will make you.

Ive learned never to try and force words to come.

My background is deep and set in deep time, and in a narrow space, oral traditions going back a long, long time, which I inherited by osmosis.