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Lots of things resolve themselves just by being in the drawer a while.

In his writing tips, Max Sebald echoes T. S. Eliot’s notion of idea incubation and the concept of unconscious processing in creative work, something iconic designer Paula Scher has captured aptly in her slot machine metaphor for creativity.

More famous advice on writing here.

writing Max Sebald history and literature lit creativity and innovation quote media and communication

You must get the servants to work for you. You mustn’t do all the work yourself. That is, you should ask other people for information, and steal ruthlessly from what they provide. None of the things you make up will be as hair-raising as the things people tell you. I can only encourage you to steal as much as you can. No one will ever notice. You should keep a notebook of tidbits, but don’t write down the attributions, and then after a couple of years you can come back to the notebook and treat the stuff as your own without guilt.

Beloved author Max Sebald takes the notion of stealing like an artist to a whole new level in these writing tips for his students. One can only hope he was being facetious, because attribution does matter.

Max Sebald writing history and literature lit thought and opinion quote

Writing is about discovering things hitherto unseen. Otherwise there’s no point to the process.

Beloved author Max Sebald’s writing tips, compiled by his students after his death – a priceless addition to our ongoing archive of famous writing advice.