Sunshine in a Jar

Archive for the ‘Sunshine Quotes’ Category

I took McKee’s Story Seminar in 2004.  Thirty hours of instruction in three days.  I left the course feeling exhilarated.  His teachings filter through my writing and his voice often rises to the surface in the classes I teach.  Today while I was surfing I found this inspiring quote. Just reading it filled me up with a renewed sense of purpose for my creative projects.  I consider Robert McKee to be one of my most influential writing teachers.

“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.”–Robert McKee

Who are your writing teachers?

“You are splinters of the sun,

You are worth celebrating,

You are worth elevating,

And when you take the time

To fill your worlds within

You will join the world without.”

(Weller, 2006)

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”

“When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

“There is one thing one has to have: either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul made cheerful by work, love, art and knowledge.”

“I’m a painter first. I sing my sorrow and I paint my joy.”

“There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.”

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.”

“If there is a virtue in the world at which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness.”

“Breathless, we flung us on a windy hill, / Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.”