Literary History, Dark with Silence, Not Natural Silences, Tillie Olsen

“Literary history and the present are dark with silences . . . I have had special need to learn all I could of this over the years, myself so nearly remaining mute and having to let writing die over and over again in me. These are not natural silences--what Keats called agonie ennuyeuse (the tedious agony)--that necessary time for renewal, lying fallow, gestation, in the natural cycle of creation. The silences I speak of here are unnatural: the unnatural thwarting of what struggles to come into being, but cannot.” ― Tillie Olsen

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/89863.Tillie_Olsen.

Literary History, The Present, Dark With Silences, The Tedious Agony, Tillie Olsen

“Literary history and the present are dark with silences . . . I have had special need to learn all I could of this over the years, myself so nearly remaining mute and having to let writing die over and over again in me. These are not natural silences--what Keats called agonie ennuyeuse (the tedious agony)--that necessary time for renewal, lying fallow, gestation, in the natural cycle of creation. The silences I speak of here are unnatural: the unnatural thwarting of what struggles to come into being, but cannot.” ― Tillie Olsen

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/89863.Tillie_Olsen.