Tobias Wolff
"In the very act of writing I felt pleased with what I did. There was the pleasure of having words come to me, and the pleasure of ordering them, re-ordering them, weighing one against another. Pleasure also in the imagination of the story, the feeling that it could mean something. Mostly I was glad to find out that I could write at all. In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina and self-mastery and faith. It demands those things of you, then gives them back with a little extra, a surprise to keep you coming. It toughens you and clears your head. I could feel it happening. I was saving my life with every word I wrote, and I knew it."
9 Quotes
"In the very act of writing I felt pleased with what I did. There was the pleasure of having words come to me, and the pleasure of ordering them, re-ordering them, weighing one against another. Pleasure also in the imagination of the story, the feeling that it could mean something. Mostly I was glad to find out that I could write at all. In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina and self-mastery and faith. It demands those things of you, then gives them back with a little extra, a surprise to keep you coming. It toughens you and clears your head. I could feel it happening. I was saving my life with every word I wrote, and I knew it."
"في غمرة الكتابة، غمرني السرور بما صنعت. كانت هناك متعة تدفق الكلمات إليّ، ولذة ترتيبها، وإعادة ترتيبها، وموازنة إحداها بالأخرى. ومتعة أخرى في نسج خيوط الحكاية، والشعور بأنها قد تحمل مغزى عميقًا. وما أسعدني حقًا هو اكتشافي لقدرتي على الكتابة.
في الكتابة، تعمل جاهدًا نحو غاية لن تتجلى لك إلا بعد سنين طوال، ولا تتيقن من رؤيتها قط. إنها تتطلب جلدًا ومثابرة، وضبطًا للذات، وإيمانًا راسخًا. هي تطلب منك هذه الخصال، ثم تردها إليك مضاعفة، مفاجأة تدفعك للمضي قدمًا. تقوي عزيمتك وتجلي فكرك. كنت ألمس أثرها فيّ. كنت أنقذ حياتي بكل كلمة أخطها، وكنت أدرك ذلك تمامًا."
Tobias Wolff
In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War
"I teach one semester a year, and this year I'm just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older students in their late 20s and early 30s, people in our graduate program who are already working on a manuscript and trying to bring it to completion."
"أُدرّسُ فصلاً دراسياً واحداً في السنة، وهذا العام سأكتفي بتدريس مقررٍ واحدٍ خلاله؛ ورشة عملٍ للكتابة مخصصةٍ لطلابٍ متقدمين في أواخر العشرينات وأوائل الثلاثينات من العمر، وهم من الملتحقين ببرنامج الدراسات العليا لدينا، ويعملون بالفعل على مخطوطاتٍ يسعون لإنجازها."
Tobias Wolff
"Real maturity is the ability to imagine the humanity of every person as fully as you believe in your own humanity."
"النضج الحقيقي هو القدرة على تخيل إنسانية كل شخص بكامل عمقها، تمامًا كما تؤمن بإنسانيتك."
Tobias Wolff
"We are made to persist.that's how we find out who we are."
"لقد خُلقنا لنصمد؛ هكذا نكتشف ذواتنا."
Tobias Wolff
"In a world where the most consequential things happen by chance, or from unfathomable causes, you don't look to reason for help. You consort with mysteries... They have been killed in place of you - in your place. You don't think it out, not at the time, not in those terms, but you can't help but feel it, and go on feeling it. It's the close call you have to keep escaping from, the unending doubt that you have a right to your own life. It's the corruption suffered by everyone who lives on, that henceforth they must wonder at the reason and probe its justice."
"في عالمٍ تقع فيه جلّ الأمور المصيرية صدفةً، أو لأسبابٍ لا تُدرك كنهها، لا تستعين بالعقل. بل تؤاخي الغوامض... لقد قُتلوا بدلاً منك - في مكانك. لا تحلّل الأمر، لا في حينه، ولا بهذه المصطلحات، لكنك لا تملك إلا أن تستشعره، وتظل تستشعره. إنها النجاة التي تظل تفر من تبعاتها، والشك الذي لا ينتهي في حقك في الحياة. إنه العطب الذي يصيب كل من ينجو، فيتوجب عليهم من الآن فصاعداً أن يتساءلوا عن السبب ويستقصوا عدالته."
Tobias Wolff
"Had he learned nothing from all those years of teaching Hawthorne? Through story after story he’d led his boys to consider the folly of obsession with purity – its roots sunk deep in pride, flowering condemnation and violence against others and self."
"ألم يتعلم شيئًا من كل تلك السنوات التي قضاها في تدريس هوثورن؟ فمن خلال قصة تلو الأخرى، كان يقود فتيانه للتأمل في حماقة الهوس بالنقاء – جذوره الراسخة في الكبرياء، والتي تُزهر إدانة وعنفًا ضد الآخرين وضد الذات."
Tobias Wolff
"I had never seen such sorrow; it appalled me. And I was even more appalled by her attempts to overcome it, because they so plainly, pathetically failed and in failing opened up a view of the world I had only begun to suspect, where wounds did not heal, and things did not work out for the best"
Tobias Wolff
"The human heart is a dark forest"
Tobias Wolff
"There are very few professions in which people just sit down and think hard for five or six hours a day all by themselves. Of course it's why you want to become a writer — because you have the liberty to do that, but once you have the liberty you also have the obligation to do it."
Tobias Wolff
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