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My old roommate nabuchodonosor is fearless when it comes to saying what she needs to say. Well, no that's not true, sometimes she IS scared, but she makes herself say it anyway. I admired her for that and when we were living together I took every opportunity to tell her so. (And on a completely unrelated note, yesterday, in what I can only describe as an act of homage to [her], I bought a copy of "The Portable Henry Rollins.")
--morrigirl

I have a friend who has images, occurances, places that she wants to record for posterity, for herself, in writing. And she thinks a kind of compelling story is necessary. Problem is, it's difficult to write a compelling story about a place, unless the people in the story, their predicament and plight, their story and plot and pacing is compelling.
-- good_benito, 8.04.03, Denver CO.

While we wer eout there I got to tell Gemma about something I've been considering for a couple of weeks now. Not long ago I read a journal entry on a different site written by another creative writing major from Knox in which she asked "Why can't I get anything published?" And my first thought was "Well, becaus eyou're not a very good writer." And it's the truth. She's not. She never was. But that got me thinking about all the creative writing majors I know who have not yet had anything published, and I asked myself, of all those unpublished writers which one I thought would be the greatest shame to never see in print? Whose work would the reading public and literature in general be most deprived of if they were never published? I thought long and hard about this. There were plenty of people who I like as individuals, but who I just don't think have much talent when it comes to writing. And there were a handful of really good writers to consider, but when I got right down to it there was only one person whose writing I thought was so strong that to keep them out of the American literary canon would be a crying shame: Gemma. She's got it . She is the one with the strongest voice, the most unique point of view, uses the most creative language, and has the most technique. Not me. Not you. Her. I'm not saying this because she is my best friend, I'm saying it because she is honestly the best writer I know. hen I told her this, she got all teary eyed. She said it was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. I didn't mean to make her teary but I'm so glad I got to tell her, and I'm glad it touched her. She needs to know poeple have faith in her.
--morrigirl

If I succeed, my work will be public; I will be public. My work will be viewed by sophisticated, educated people who know what they're talking about, who will expect answers I don't have, and who will pry deeper, as if what I have revealed is not enough. They will demand more, and I'm afraid I won't be able to deliver. They will find out what a big fake I am; I, myself, will find out that I am not THAT deep, THAT profound. I will have to be super aware of my presentation before others. I will be forced to promote myself, to parade my achievements. I will have to deal with professional critics. My craftmanship will be dissected and what is important to me will be dismissed or trivialized. I am not afraid of losing my work; I am afraid of losing my soul. I will have to give up old familiar not o.k. feelings and thoughts. I don't know if I can live with happiness and bliss. I am afraid of the new. If I succeed, I will be successful and I am afraid of what that will mean.
-- Sister Milagros Sanchez, for Pat Schneider's Writing Alone and With Others