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Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.

Jessamyn West

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Jessamyn West
Age: 81 †
Born: 1902
Born: July 18
Died: 1984
Died: February 22
Author
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Indiana
United States
Mary Jessamyn West
Absolutely
Necessary
Courage
Talent
Writing
Preconceptions
Guts
Helpful

More quotes by Jessamyn West

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There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive.
Jessamyn West
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A broken bone can heal, but the wound a word opens can fester forever.
Jessamyn West
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People who keep journals have life twice
Jessamyn West
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To meet at all, one must open ones eyes to another and there is no true conversation no matter how many words are spoken, unless the eye, unveiled and listening, opens itself to the other.
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With enough libraries, all content is free.
Jessamyn West
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A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself.
Jessamyn West
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If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.
Jessamyn West
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It is the loving, not the loved, woman who feels loveable.
Jessamyn West
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Being consistent meant not departing from convictions already formulated being a leader meant making other persons accept these convictions. It was a narrow track, and a one-way, but a person might travel a considerable distance on it. A number of dictators have.
Jessamyn West
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The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.
Jessamyn West
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Somehow I have the feeling that in some book is the great treasure I've been looking for all my life.
Jessamyn West
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The conversation of two people remembering, if the memory is enjoyable to both, rocks on like music or lovemaking. There is a rhythm and a predictability to it that each anticipates and relishes.
Jessamyn West
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You make what seems a simple choice: choose a man or a job or a neighborhood- and what you have chosen is not a man or a job or a neighborhood, but a life.
Jessamyn West
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In their sympathies, children feel nearer animals than adults
Jessamyn West
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In their sympathies, children feel nearer animals than adults. They frolic with animals, caress them, share with them feelings neither has words for. Have they ever stroked any adult with the love they bestow on a cat? Hugged any grownup with the ecstasy they feel when clasping a puppy?
Jessamyn West
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Nothing is so dear as what you're about to leave.
Jessamyn West
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A good time for laughing is when you can.
Jessamyn West
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If you want a baby, have a new one. Don't baby the old one.
Jessamyn West
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We can love an honest rogue, but what is more offensive than a false saint?
Jessamyn West
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The source of one's joy is also often the source of one's sorrow.
Jessamyn West