"Unless It Moves the Human Heart..."

Notes I took tonight from the PBS interview with Roger Rosenblatt on his book, "Unless It Moves the Human Heart: the Craft and Art of Writing." I've admired his work for years, but I didn't know he was such a wonderful teacher. I look forward to reading the work in full as soon as possible.

"There is no clock attached to becoming a writer." Thank you, Roger Rosenblatt!

“Write to make suffering endurable, evil intelligible, justice desirable, and love possible.”

What should a writer strive for? "Anticipation rather than surprise, imagination rather than invention, … and write with precision and restraint."

Why do you do it? "To make the world better, to be useful."

Finally, "If a critic says you meant something, take the credit, even if you didn’t."

My full apologies to Roger Rosenblatt and PBS for errors in grammar and misquotes.

http://www.amazon.com/Unless-Moves-Human-Heart-Writing/dp/0061965618/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296524707&sr=1-1