Today’s quote comes to us from writer Marion Winik whose risk taking in area of creative nonfiction and the personal essay make me proud to know her. She is a beacon of truth-telling in the sometimes foggy world  of so-called reality shows.

The quote that inspires Marion comes from William Stafford’s essay A Way of Writing:

“A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them.”

Marion singles this quote out because “The idea is to trust the process and make time and space for it to unfold,” says Marion. “For me, that can mean half a day in bed with my laptop, taking some puny little idea and teasing it out into something more. I find I don’t have tons of great ideas — I’m lucky if I have one or two nebbish, vague ideas. But I know that if I assume the position and start moving my fingers, there’s a good chance something will come of it. Along those lines, I also love Joan Didion’s famous quote.”

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.”

Stafford’s quote is the motto of the Creative Writing & Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore where Marion teaches. She also writes a column called “Bohemian Rhapsody” for BaltimoreFishbowl.com and is the author of eight books of creative non fiction and two books of poetry.

Thanks for stopping in, Marion.