The Quotable Writer: H. Jackson Brown

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

-H. Jackson Brown, author of “Life’s Little Instruction Book.”

H. Jackson Brown, author of "Life's Little Instruction Book." Source: InstructionBook.com

by Dick Loftin 

We all have the same hour, day, week, month, year. It is one facet of life where all things are equal. We fill time with work, family, hobbies, and if there is a spare minute or two, some writing. In the order of the day, writing, the thing that makes us whole, is what happens last.

During World War II, Winston Churchill is said to have told General Dwight Eisenhower that he needed to find something else other than the war to think about. Churchill was a painter and encouraged Eisenhower to try it. He did, and while he thought his talent was limited, he enjoyed it.

The point is, everyone needs something to take their mind away from the worries of the day. For many, writing provides this escape. And for many, finding the time to indulge in this escape is a challenge. I write whenever I can. It can be a minute here, a half hour there, a title, an idea. I consider one good sentence, one good title, part of what I call “writing.” It doesn’t have to be ten pages of stunning prose. What it has to be is a starting point, a place to “launch.”

I’m impressed by the “big” writers—John Updike comes to mind—who could create writing out of thin air. Good writing. Writing worth reading. Updike could produce a piece of writing out of nearly anything and everything that came his way. Updike was a “working writer,” creating poems, reviews, and essays, in addition to his short stories and novels. When I look at one of his collections of essays, I marvel at how someone could have that many words in them.

Writing may be called a creative art, but in reality, it is creative work. Not one word will get written without sitting in the chair and punching the keyboard. Not one. I do my writing at night, after dinner, and on weekends. I write mainly in the quiet, no radio, no TV. Quiet allows me to think. I think about the writing. There is more to writing than words on paper, there is reading and thinking. Reading good writing—I believe—makes me a better writer. And thinking about what I have read enriches my writing, providing depth and form.  The more I read of other people’s writing, I see more of what I want to read in my own writing.

So now, we’re back to time. Whether I have five minutes, ten minutes, or two hours, I try to create value, something I can use. Those five minutes may produce a title for a poem, a good line to finish another. And after a while, I have what I want: Writing.

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“The Quotable Writer” is a new page on Endpaper Review, offering encouragement to all writers in every form of writing. The quotes are discovered in random places from anywhere, some not directly involved in the writer’s craft, but can apply to the writer at work.