Menu

 Authors
A B C D E F
G H I J K L
M N O P Q R
S T U V W S
Y Z
Get Socialize
My Account
Make Free Wallpaper

"302 Writing Quotes

I did not end up as broadly educated as my Cambridge colleagues, but I graduated probably better equipped to write a book on my chosen subject.

Better Book Cambridge Chosen
  Favorite Make wallpaper
The thing about good writing is it has a music to it.
About Good Good Writing Music
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation.

Conversation Different I Think May
  Favorite Make wallpaper

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.

Because Behind Communicate Driven
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.

Being Help Only Professional
  Favorite Make wallpaper
I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.
I Write Paid Pay Want
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I always considered myself a minor writer. My province is small, and I try to explore it very, very thoroughly.

Always Considered Explore Minor
  Favorite Make wallpaper

You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.

Beautiful Beautiful Eyes Because Become
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I don't think you can write novels on the road. You need a certain stability.

Certain Need Novels Road
  Favorite Make wallpaper

If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.

About Advice Give Had
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Nothing you write, if you hope to be good, will ever come out as you first hoped.

Come Ever First Good
  Favorite Make wallpaper

They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.

About Advice Fancy Give
  Favorite Make wallpaper
For me, writing is more a process of discovering the book than planning it.
Book Discovering Me More
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Raymond Chandler managed to write about L.A. his whole career. Should I keep going writing about New York? Is that what I should be doing? Songwriting doesn't work that way.

About Career Doing Going
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.

Able Earn He Live
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.

Difference Hours Fiction Leaves
  Favorite Make wallpaper
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it
Become Writer Person Absolute
  Favorite Make wallpaper
A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.
Fiction Fear Demands Whether
  Favorite Make wallpaper

For me, a writer should be more like a lighthouse keeper, just out there by himself. He shouldn't get his ideas from other people all around him.

All-Around Around Get He
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I did not want to write one of those sequels that famous first-book authors get into where everybody says, 'Oh yeah.'

Authors Did Everybody Famous
  Favorite Make wallpaper

A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.

Consisting Could Entirely Good
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I would love to spend all my time writing to you; I'd love to share with you all that goes through my mind, all that weighs on my heart, all that gives air to my soul; phantoms of art, dreams that would be so beautiful if they could come true.

Air All My Time Art Beautiful
  Favorite Make wallpaper

When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.

Action Alive Author Before
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I will always really work hard to write as much as I can, but I also love sitting back and waiting on those big Nashville songwriters to send me some great songs, too.

Also Always Back Big
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I'd have to say that my favorite thing is writing a song that really says how I feel, what I believe - and it even explains the world to myself better than I knew it.

Believe Better Even Explains
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I've written many extra verses to songs that I learned to sing - an extra verse about a friend, or just add some verse - and that led to writing my own songs.

About Add Extra Friend
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The idea that I wrote something that stood for the way I feel about things, and that it lasts, that's probably my favorite thing that I've done.

About Done Favorite Favorite Thing
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending.

American American Difficulty Ending
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Everyone who knew me as a child, they say they're not surprised that I became a writer because I wrote all the time. I don't remember writing, because I wouldn't have had the tools, but I think what they are saying is that I would pretend I was a writer.

Became Because Child Everyone
  Favorite Make wallpaper

It is true that I am a writer, and I was married to a composer, and I have lived in a small village in New England, but my children are not named Heracles and Persephone, and my daughter doesn't disappear underground every six months and emerge in the spring.

Am Children Composer Daughter
  Favorite Make wallpaper

For me, writing isn't a way of being public or private; it's just a way of being. The process is always full of pain, but I like that. It's a reality, and I just accept it as something not to be avoided.

Accept Always Avoided Being
  Favorite Make wallpaper

When I'm writing, I think about the garden, and when I'm in the garden I think about writing. I do a lot of writing by putting something in the ground.

About Garden Ground I Think
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The quality of what is said inevitably influences the way in which it is said, however inexperienced the writer.

However Inevitably Inexperienced Influences
  Favorite Make wallpaper
May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. It is sometimes a wonderful help in misery.
Down Feel Help Hoping
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.

Also Difficult Himself His
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I can write anywhere. I actually wrote more than I ever did when I had small children. My children were never a hindrance.

Actually Anywhere Children Did
  Favorite Make wallpaper

You know how some people write every day at a certain point? I'm not like that. I carry something around for a long time. I weigh the words and the sentences. I weigh the paragraphs. The process is much more meditative for me.

Around Carry Certain Certain Point
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I write a lot in my head. The revision goes on internally. It's not spontaneous and it doesn't have a schedule.

Goes Head I Write Lot
  Favorite Make wallpaper

When I write nonfiction, it's always absolutely true. There will be no moment in my nonfiction where I have made something up and have to apologize to the bullying hostess of a talk show.

Absolutely Always Apologize Bullying
  Favorite Make wallpaper
I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.
Excellent Good Good Writer Very
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

Emotions Human Human Emotions I Love
  Favorite Make wallpaper
I'm just a guy up on a hill writing.
Guy Hill Just Up
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I have only one bit of advice to the beginning writer: Be sure your novel is read by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Advice Beginning Bit Hammerstein
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Our scribblings are usually not lyrics but whirrings, without colour or resonance, like the tone of an engine-wheel. I believe that the cause lies in the fact that when people write, they forget for the most part to dig deeply into themselves and to feel the whole import and truth of what they are writing.

Believe Cause Colour Deeply
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Writing about dead white males seems to be out of favor among academics.

About Academics Among Dead
  Favorite Make wallpaper
There were 900 books on Washington when I began writing on him.
Began Books Him Washington
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Every time I wrote fiction, I was discouraged, and every time I wrote nonfiction, I was encouraged.

Discouraged Encouraged Every EveryTime
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Writing a screenplay, for me, is like juggling. It's like, how many balls can you get in the air at once? All those ideas have to float out there to a certain point, and then they'll crystallize into a pattern.

Air Balls Certain Certain Point
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I wanted to see if I could write a good book.

Book Could Good Good Book
  Favorite Make wallpaper
It's so difficult writing about living people.
About Difficult Living People
  Favorite Make wallpaper