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" You have to be good. And keep getting better. For every writer taken on, another is dropped. A paradox: you have to rise to stay level. "
Matt Haig
Good
You
Getting Better
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" To say that creative writing courses are all useless is almost as silly as saying all editors are useless. Writers of all levels can benefit from other instructive voices. "
Matt Haig
Writing
Silly
Creative
" There aren't any fences to the imagination, and so there shouldn't be any for books. "
Matt Haig
Imagination
Any
Fences
" I think we get too hung up on categories. Obviously, the book market has to categorise things, and it makes it easier for a reader to go into a bookshop and choose, but as a writer, it helps to get rid of all of that and imagine you are a storyteller around a campfire. "
Matt Haig
Think
Imagine
Choose
" Words are the essence of culture. Books are pure essence. They are not for women or for men, but for all of us. Without books, civilisation falls into the dark ages. "
Matt Haig
Pure
Words
Culture
" Keep reiterating, again and again, that depression is not something you 'admit to.' It is not something you have to blush about; it is a human experience. It is not you. It is simply something that happens to you. "
Matt Haig
Admit
You
Keep
" To make 'depression' synonymous with 'dangerous' is as bad as saying 'Muslim' is synonymous with 'terrorist.' "
Matt Haig
Depression
Make
Saying
" Thinking about death makes you analyse what life is. Anxiety makes you curious, and curiosity leads to understanding. I wouldn't be a writer without depression. "
Matt Haig
You
Life
Curiosity
" However much in the foreground depression feels, you are separate to it. This is going to sound cheesy, but I'd say you are the sky. A cloud comes and dominates the sky. But the sky is still the sky. Depression tells you everything is going to get worse, but that's a symptom. Don't give depression power - constantly discredit it. "
Matt Haig
You
Cloud
Say
" I've always thought feminism had a lot to say about both genders, as it is hard to talk about one without the other. I think men and women alike would benefit from men having a more fluid idea of what being a man is. "
Matt Haig
Man
Think
Say
" Lots of children have had dark experiences, and if they're not having direct dark experiences, they are thinking about things and learning that life is fragile. You have to acknowledge that side of life to be able to then offer comfort and hope and goodwill. "
Matt Haig
Hope
Life
Thinking
" The aim of any writer, even a fantasy writer, is the pursuit of truth. "
Matt Haig
Writer
Any
Aim
" I suppose the book I really remember loving as a child was one called 'The Outsiders' by S.E. Hinton, about a gang of kids from the wrong side of the tracks in Sixties Oklahoma. I grew up in the Eighties in Nottinghamshire, but this tale of troubled, but essentially good, kids - or 'greasers' - was something I completely connected with. "
Matt Haig
Book
Remember
Good
" Teenagers are philosophers. They are thinking about the big things like existence and identity at a time when their identities are changing so fast. "
Matt Haig
Thinking
Like
Identity
" Human brains - in terms of cognition and emotion and consciousness - are essentially the same as they were at the time of Shakespeare or Jesus or Cleopatra or the Stone Age. They are not evolving with the pace of change. "
Matt Haig
Emotion
Change
Time
" British culture is very cynical sometimes of overt displays of sentimentality, and I think that becomes almost a suspicion of emotion, or a suspicion of someone making a grand statement. It is always easier to be ironic, or 'meta', or coolly postmodern. But I think there is such a thing as authentic sentimentality. "
Matt Haig
Someone
Sometimes
Culture
" If you took away all pain, if everyone lived forever, everything would be bland, flat and boring; there would be no reason for art, music, newspapers, love because we would all be in a mono state of happiness. "
Matt Haig
Happiness
You
Pain
" The implication that depressed people are fundamentally irresponsible is a deeply damaging and counterproductive one. Winston Churchill was a depressive. He didn't just fly planes; he was in charge of the Royal Air Force. "
Matt Haig
Fly
Royal
People
" Writing can be fun. I think the challenge is to convey interesting things in accessible ways, and that's what I aim to do in books. "
Matt Haig
Challenge
Fun
Writing
" Beauty breeds beauty; truth triggers truth. The cure for writer's block is therefore to read. "
Matt Haig
Writer
Truth
Block
" When I was young, there was no such thing as YA. You simply went from reading children's novels to reading adult novels. So one year, I was reading Tove Jansson, and the next year, I was reading Stephen King. "
Matt Haig
Reading
Children
King
" Robots are great. I am saying that now so that when a future civilization of robots takes us captive, they will search through the 'Guardian' web archive and realise I said, 'Robots are great,' and then they'll choose to save me. "
Matt Haig
Saying
Me
I Am
" If you are an atheist as I am, Shakespeare can be your ideal. Everything is within Shakespeare, especially in his 10 greatest plays. They have life, meaning, understanding, the whole lot. "
Matt Haig
Life
Meaning
Understanding
" Depressives have led countries, won wars, flown rockets to the moon, made great music. Don't let depression stop you employing someone, and never let it cause you to judge them. Depression is not a person. Like any other illness, it is something that happens to a person. It shouldn't define them. "
Matt Haig
Depression
Music
Moon
" Creative writing lessons can be very useful, just like music lessons can be useful. To say, as Hanif Kureishi did, that 99.9% of students are talentless is cruel and wrong. I believe that certain writers like to believe they arrived into the world with special, unteachable powers because it is good for the ego. "
Matt Haig
Creative
Good
Music
" Parents can only do what they think is best, with the experience they have. The learning curve for every parent is that there's a limit to how much they can shield children from. "
Matt Haig
Children
Learning
Experience
" Books should be right up there with exercise and diet as something that don't just entertain us but heal us. They tell us we are not alone and fix the pieces of us that can be shattered by reality. They are teachers, and they are friends, and we should never contemplate a world - or a life - without them. "
Matt Haig
Friends
Alone
World
" Look at the sky; remind yourself of the cosmos. Seek vastness at every opportunity in order to see the smallness of yourself. "
Matt Haig
Opportunity
Look
See
" Understand that thoughts are thoughts. If they are unreasonable, reason with them, even if you have no reason left. You are the observer of your mind, not its victim. "
Matt Haig
Victim
Mind
Thoughts
" Teenagers watch and listen to all kinds of things. It is the nature of being a teenager to seek out intense stuff. Stuff about death and sex and love and fear. Teenagers are the bravest, most curious, most philosophical, most open-minded readers there are, which is why so many less-than-young adults like writing for them. "
Matt Haig
Fear
Nature
Sex
" I have never felt oppressed by women or that feminism is a problem. I do think boys find it hard to like things seen as feminine. I want my son not to feel self-conscious he likes ballet and my daughter to carry on playing Han Solo; that's all. "
Matt Haig
Daughter
Women
Think