Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater latitude for the ego.
Meaning of the quote
This quote means that even though great writers are talented at many different things, writing allows them to express their own personality and feelings more freely than other types of work. Writing gives writers more freedom to show their unique thoughts and ideas.
About John Cheever
John Cheever was an acclaimed American short story writer and novelist, known for his works set in the suburbs and New England. He won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and is considered a master of the short story form.
More quotes from John Cheever
The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one’s life and discover one’s usefulness.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss – you can’t do it alone.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say. I will say that literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Art is the triumph over chaos.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of battle. It has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman taken in adultery as she looks out of a window at the rain but to describe four hundred people under the lights reaching for a foul ball. This is ceremony.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
When I remember my family, I always remember their backs. They were always indignantly leaving places.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
People look for morals in fiction because there has always been a confusion between fiction and philosophy.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Literature has been the salvation of the damned, literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair and can perhaps in this case save the world.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Homesickness is nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater latitude for the ego.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
I do not understand the capricious lewdness of the sleeping mind.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
That’s the way I remember them, heading for an exit.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)
All literary men are Red Sox fans – to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.
American novelist and short story writer (1912-1982)