Willa Cather - Michelle Richmond

Literary Quotes on Calmness

It’s crazy out there right now, what with the stock market sliding and coronavirus fears spreading and so much uncertainty in the air. When the noise in my head and the noise of the world is too loud, I turn to literature for some much-needed soothing of the soul. When all else fails, books are a beautiful refuge.

As Montaigne noted, “When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.” Here, then, some books to absorb you and banish the clouds:

“I began to regain a measure of calm. I had done a good job tying the ladder to the tree, after all. It wasn’t going to come loose just like that.” Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I dig this because it reminds you that every day, you perform a thousand minor tasks that work out just fine. You brush your teeth and don’t choke on the toothpaste. You drive to work and don’t hit a deer. You eat the cookie dough and don’t get salmonella. Be calm because, after all, you’re probably more prepared than you think, and maybe it’s not all going to come loose just like that.

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“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark

This is lovely because it accepts that, though storms are inevitable, there are lessons to be learned within the storm. I think of hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. On the rare occasion that we didn’t evacuate, we would all huddle together in a closet in the middle of our little house beside a kudzoo patch until the outer circle of the storm passed. When it grew quiet, we’d escape the closet and wander onto the porch, into the warm, strange silence of the eye. The world, in the center of the eye, feels utterly changed. It is the same place, only different, and I have always imagined that’s what it would feel like to step into an alternate universe–calm and slightly terrifying, painfully beautiful.

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“Occasionally along the banks it would catch on some underwater obstacle, and eddies would develop. But the river flowed on, parading, concerned only with its hidden aims beyond the horizon, somewhere far off to the north.” Olga Tokarczuk, Flights

It’s like that, isn’t it? We snag ourselves on all these unexpected obstacles we couldn’t possibly have seen coming, submerged as they are beneath the surface. Flowing is a simpler business when you can’t see what’s ahead. We live with the eddies, but there is somewhere to get to, so we keep going there. In this steady flow, one finds calm.

Flights

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“You cannot wait for an untroubled world to have an untroubled moment…In the meantime, it is best to grab what wonderful moments you find lying around.” Lemony Snickett, All the Wrong Questions: Shouldn’t You Be in School?

So true. There will always be trouble, which makes it all the more essential to “grab” the good times. Don’t be shy about experiencing those moments. As the French say, profiter. (Or, a command, because in France one loves to issue orders: Profitez!)

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“He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age…” Plato (Great Dialogues of Plato)

No disrepsect to Plato, but this may be simplifying matters a bit. Still, one can enjoy the spirit of it. A calm and happy nature may not ward of osteoporosis and the ultimate descent (or ascent, if that’s the way you see it), but it does make the journey more pleasant, to a point.

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“I think about what I’m reading or writing… All you need is a little peace and quiet and the words will come to you — your own voice or the other’s. Your own voice or the voice of God. Perspiration. Inspiration. It feels like a gift.” Thomas Lynch, Bodies in Motion and at Rest

Here, Lynch describes the essential, exquisite calm that comes with a life of the mind, a life in books. There is patience in this kind of life, in the stillness that books and writing bring, in the waiting for words. It’s the patience all writers strive for, the stillness we crave. I think we crave it more in times of chaos. There is a place you go to in the mind, a cocoon of safety: books can be the vehicle to take you there.

For a counterpoint, you might consider Oscar Wilde, who loved to provide the counterpoint, just to be contrarian:

“Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.” Oscar Wilde

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Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of THE YEAR OF FOG, The Marriage Pact, Golden State, and other novels and story collections. Her books have been published in 30 languages. She lives and writes in Paris.

Discover THE YEAR OF FOG, the international bestseller about one woman’s search for a missing child.

“A mesmerizing novel of loss and grief, hope and redemption, and the endurance of love.” Library Journal, starred review

“A harrowing, beautifully written story of a photographer and soon-to-be stepmom whose momentary lapse in attention results in the disappearance of her fiance’s little girl on a foggy beach in San Francisco. What happened to 6-year-old Emma? The answer, and its implications, will keep you on the edge of your beach chair.” Denver Post

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Writers on Writing – Willa Cather on “Making It an Adventure”

In 1921, Willa Cather told an editor for the magazine Bookman that she only worked for two and a half to three hours each day. “If I made a chore of it, my enthusiasm would die,” she said. “I make it an adventure every day.”

Like so many other writers, Cather preferred working in the morning when she was “fresh” and unencumbered by the day’s concerns. I always prefer working in the morning, too, although my intentions are far better than my practice. For me, the key is getting up early enough to give myself at least an hour before I switch to “mom” mode, which means getting up not a minute later than 5:00. I go to bed most nights believing I will be out of bed by 5:00 the next morning, and then I roll out of bed closer to 6:30 or 7:00, chastising myself and promising to do better tomorrow.

Today was one of those rare days when I happened to live up to my nightly vow. By 5:05 I was at my desk with my coffee, writing. By 6:30, I had written three and a half pages. Those three and a half pages felt more like 20; I felt triumphant, as if I had accomplished a great deal.

And it only took one and a half hours! Cather is on to something here. If you work in short spurts–two hours instead of five–every minute of it is more likely to feel like an adventure. If you can’t afford two hours, try one. If you can’t afford an hour, try thirty minutes. University of Nebraska Press has published a whole book of Cather’s insightful advice on writing, with the utterly unpretentious and spot-on title, Willa Cather on Writing.

Alice Munro, by the way, is a writer who accomplished much of her early success while juggling writing with motherhood. First, she wrote while her youngest child napped, and later, she wrote while her children were at school. Toni Morrison’s time was so limited as a single mother with a nine-to-five job that the time she did manage to find at the typewriter was rich with possibility. “By the time I get to the paper something’s there,” she said. “I can produce.”

No matter when you are able to make it to your writing desk, or your notebook, try to approach it as an adventure, not a chore. Merely having the privilege of an hour to write can be an adventure in itself.

This week, when you sit down to write, attempt to do it with a sense of enthusiasm for the hour that you have, the hour that will never repeat itself, this spectacular, beautiful, unique hour in which anything can happen.

Category: Willa Cather