Rion Amilcar Scott on the Comforting Familiarity of Clichés

For PBS, Rion Amilcar Scott, author of the story collection, The World Doesn’t Require You, explores how the familiarity of clichés can comfort those in the midst of grieving. “Look, as a writer, all my training has taught me to be allergic to cliches,” Scott says. “If I were to somehow write that my mother’s death caused me to cry my eyes out, in revision, I would perhaps replace that stock phrase with a description of words lost in the crack of a voice trying to stifle back tears. Death, in all its devastating finality, though, won’t wait for a revision. Death won’t wait for you to dig through your soul in search of a blazing truth that will put a grieving spirit in order.”