WRITING QUOTES III

quotations about writing

Writing quote

If you will describe the people--nay, if you will write for the people, you must be one of the people.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: Walter Bagehot


In writing ... remember that the biggest stories are not written about wars, or about politics, or even murders. The biggest stories are written about the things which draw human beings closer together.

SUSAN GLASPELL

Little Masks

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It is always vaunting, of course, to imagine yourself inside another person, but it is what a story writer does in every piece of work; it is his first step, and his last too, I suppose.

EUDORA WELTY

One Writer's Beginnings


Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it's raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

E. L. DOCTOROW

attributed, Stein on Writing

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If I've already figured out how the book ends, why bother to finish writing it? My writing isn't terribly efficient, because I often have to backtrack a bit when I change my mind, but I like the sense of discovery that comes from not knowing what happens next.

PATRICIA BRIGGS

interview, Bitten by Books, March 30, 2010

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To this day, if you ask me how I became a writer, I cannot give you an answer. To this day, if you ask me how a book is written, I cannot answer. For long periods, if I didn't know that somehow in the past I had written a book, I would have given up.

V. S. NAIPAUL

New York Times, April 24, 1994


In his prime the Hollywood screenwriter was one of the tragic figures of our age, evoking the special anguish that arises from feeling sorry for oneself while making large amounts of money.

J. G. BALLARD

A User's Guide to the Millennium

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It's hard work, writing, you know. Honestly, a fight every day against your own limitations. You have to squeeze books out of your brain, you're constantly trying to solve challenges. I think most writers enjoy the feeling of having written something, rather than the process of writing it.

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON

"Carlos Ruiz Zafon's love letter to literature", New Zealand Listener, March 14, 2013

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I don't give a damn what other people think. It's entirely their own business. I'm not writing for other people.

HAROLD PINTER

interview, December 1971

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No writing has any real value which is not the expression of genuine thought and feeling.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

My Day

Tags: Eleanor Roosevelt


Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the system.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR

Mystery and Manners


A double noose thou on thy neck dost pull
For writing treason and for writing dull.

JOHN DRYDEN

Absalom and Achitophel

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The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR

attributed, Room to Write: Daily Invitations to a Writer's Life

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Whoop! 6K words, 21 pages, and 8 miles on the treadmill -- DONE! #ProductiveDay #LetThereBeIceCream

VICTORIA LAURIE

Twitter post, December 21, 2014

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Writing is a profession you can practice while upside down and experiencing total blackout in a cave. You just use the mental recorder instead of pen and paper ... or portable ... and hope you find a use for the experience.

C. J. CHERRYH

interview, SFF World, January 1, 2000

Tags: C. J. Cherryh


A true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.

TOBIAS WOLFF

Old School


I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

ANN BEATTIE

Conversations with Ann Beattie

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Metaphors get under your skin by ghosting right past the logical mind.

JANE HIRSHFIELD

"The Art of Metaphor"

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The interesting thing is that I rarely look at the outline once I've done it. And when I read the outline once I've written the novel, I realize I've written a totally different book.

JONATHAN KELLERMAN

"Novelist explains how psychology training honed his writing", USC News, February 25, 2016


Writing by hand, mouthing by mouth: in each case you get a very strong physical sense of the emergence of language--squeezed out like a well-formed stool--what satisfaction! what bliss!

WILLIAM H. GASS

The Paris Review, summer 1977