Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windlingis an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She received the Solstice Award in 2010, which honors "individuals with a significant impact on the speculative fiction field." Windling's work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Lithuanian, Turkish,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArtist
CountryUnited States of America
The simple truth is that being a creative artist takes courage; it’s not a job for the faint of heart. It takes courage each and every time you put a book or poem or painting before the public, because it is, in fact, enormously revealing.
Fairy tales were not my escape from reality as a child; rather, they were my reality -- for mine was a world in which good and evil were not abstract concepts, and like fairy-tale heroines, no magic would save me unless I had the wit and heart and courage to use it widely.
Happiness is a talent like any other. It's another art form. Some people are good at it, some people aren't.
We’re all misfits herefrom our weirdnesses and our differences, from our manic fixations, our obsessions, our passions. From all those wild and wacky things that make each of us unique.
I'm working on a very long series of paintings based on desert folklore.
Robert Jordan, whether he's writing with passion or not, I don't know.
There have been a number of us working very, very hard to bring myth and fairy tales into public consciousness, through fantasy literature and other media. I hope we're succeeding in some small way.
My book collection is primarily in America, since that's where I've lived most of my life.
Read the folklore masters. Go to galleries. Walk in the woods. That's what you need to be an artist or storyteller.
One of the best things about folklore and fairy tales is that the best fantasy is what you find right around the corner, in this world. That's where the old stuff came from.
There's that old adage about how there's only seven plots in the world and Shakespeare's done them all before.
We''re all misfits here,” he says, almost proudly. “That's why I started this squat, after all. For people like us, who don't fit in anywhere else. Halfies and homos and hopeless romantics, the outcast and outrageous and terminally weird. That's where art comes from, Jimmy, my friend. From our weirdnesses and our differences, from our manic fixations, our obsessions, our passions. From all those wild and wacky things that make each of us unique.
I have a great respect for the academics who are working with the source material. My hat's off to them.