Peter Elbow Quotes

• Meaning is not what you start with, but what you end up with.

  Peter Elbow

  Clarity, Ends, Communicate

  23 Copy quote

• Producing writing is not so much like filling a basin or pool once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through till finally it runs clear.

  Peter Elbow

  Running, Writing, Water

  Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing without Teachers”, p.52, Oxford University Press

  35 Copy quote

• It's an unnecessary burden to try to think of words and also worry at the same time whether they're the right words.

  Peter Elbow

  Thinking, Worry, Trying

  Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing without Teachers”, p.5, Oxford University Press

  26 Copy quote

• Writing with voice is writing into which someone has breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying a conversation...Writing with real voice has the power to make you pay attention and understand --the words go deep.

  Peter Elbow

  Real, Writing, Voice

  31 Copy quote

• The question for writing then is this: how long are you willing to be unheard?

  Peter Elbow

  Writing, Long, Willing

  Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process”, p.211, Oxford University Press

  13 Copy quote

• It is the moment when what was chaos is now seen as having a center of gravity. There is a shape where a moment ago there was none.

  Peter Elbow

  Shapes, Chaos, Moments

  Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing without Teachers”, p.57, Oxford University Press

  18 Copy quote

• Everyone agrees in theory that we can't judge a new idea or point of view unless we enter into it and try it out, but the practice itself is rare.

  Peter Elbow

  Views, Practice, Ideas

  17 Copy quote

• Certainty is rarely if ever possible and we increase the likelihood of getting things wrong if we succumb to the hunger for it.

  Peter Elbow

  Hunger, Increase, Certainty

  Peter Elbow (1986). “Embracing contraries: explorations in learning and teaching”, Oxford University Press, USA

  15 Copy quote

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