Selma Lagerlöf

"I am in debt not only to people; there is the whole of nature as well. The animals that walk the earth, the birds in the skies, the trees and flowers, they have all told me some of their secrets."— Selma Lagerlöf, 1909

When Selma Lagerlöf accepted her Nobel Prize for literature in 1909 — the first woman to win that prize — she used the speech to tell a story, a tale of missing her father and daydreaming what an encounter would be like with him at that moment. In the line above, she speaks of debts, and all the various people, places, and things she owed her inspiration to. These things allowed her to create stories full of life and vivid details. The quote shows that inspiration doesn’t come from one particular place; it can and does come from everything around you.