Oh, friend, forget not, when you fain would note In me a beauty that was never mine, How first you knew me in a book I wrote, How first you loved me for a written line....

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Friend Forget Fain Beauty

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I spend so much time on the screen when I am writing, the last thing you want to do is spend more time on the Internet looking at a screen. That's what I hate about all this technology.

Irvine Welsh

About Am Hate I Am

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Basically, particularly in Britain, it's a hegemonic thing that people who write tend to come from the leisure classes. They can afford the time and the books.

Irvine Welsh

Afford Basically Books Britain

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Every kind of book I've written has been written in a different way. There has not been any set time for writing, any set way, I haven't re-invented the process every time but I almost have.

Irvine Welsh

Almost Any Been Book

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I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction.

Irvine Welsh

Because Fiction Like More

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I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.

Ingmar Bergman

Awaiting Flesh I Write Images

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I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

Irvine Welsh

About Arts Because Business

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I don't know where I would place myself in the literary landscape. I really just write the book that I would want to read. And I put on the blinders, and I really - it is, for me, that simple.

Dan Brown

Simple Blinders Read Book

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The establishment, the newspapers, they try to create something called Scottish literature, but when people are actually going to write, they are not going to necessarily prescribe to that, they'll write what they feel.

Irvine Welsh

Actually Create Establishment Feel

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The first job of a writer is to be honest.

Irvine Welsh

First First Job Honest Job

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There is a kind of mysticism to writing.

Irvine Welsh

Kind Mysticism Writing There

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I think one reason my books have found mainstream success is that they're written from a skeptical point of view.

Dan Brown

Books Found Point Reason

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When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories, then they'd turn into novels. I was biased toward music.

Irvine Welsh

Biased First Generate Get

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I still get up every morning at 4 A.M. I write seven days a week, including Christmas. And I still face a blank page every morning, and my characters don't really care how many books I've sold.

Dan Brown

Blank Face Books Care

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I have written a lot about the fine arts, but I'd never written about the literary arts, and so on some level Dante really, you know, spoke to me, as new ground but also familiar ground.

Dan Brown

Familiar Ground Spoke Level

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When I'm not writing, I read loads of fiction, but I've been writing quite constantly lately so I've been reading a lot of nonfiction - philosophy, religion, science, history, social or cultural studies.

Irvine Welsh

Been Constantly Cultural Fiction

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When people start writing there is this idea that you have to get everything right first time, every sentence has to be perfect, every paragraph has to be perfect, every chapter has to be perfect, but what you're doing is not any kind of public show, until you're ready for it.

Irvine Welsh

Any Chapter Doing Every

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Writing is about culture and should be about everything. That's what makes it what it is.

Irvine Welsh

About Culture Everything Makes

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I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.

Irvine Welsh

Book Character First First Thing

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If you believe the people who love you, you get lazy. And if you believe the people who hate you, you become... maybe intimidated, or whatever the word might be, and you don't write as well.

Dan Brown

Become Believe Lazy Hate

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It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.

Irvine Welsh

Expectation Kind Meet Myself

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When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.

Irvine Welsh

Calling Calling Card Card Either

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I will not write a lame follow-up. It could take me 20 years. But I will never turn in a book that I'm not happy with.

Dan Brown

Book Happy Lame Could

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I write slowly. I actually write quickly, but I throw out so much material.

Dan Brown

Actually Material Much Out

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The idea is not enough. And the most annoying thing for me as a writer is that people will come up to me and say, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I'm not a writer, but I've got a great story.'

Irvine Welsh

Annoying Book Come Enough

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I don't really think about genre. I like to write books that I'd love to read myself.

Dan Brown

Books Genre Like Love

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I'm trying to write books that taste like ice cream but have the nutrition of vegetables.

Dan Brown

Nutrition Cream Books Taste

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Writing is a solitary journey, so I am always excited to go out on book tour and meet readers one-on-one.

Dan Brown

Always Book Tour Meet

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I don't perceive an audience at all when I write a book. It's pure self-indulgence.

Irvine Welsh

Audience Book I Write Perceive

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Isaac Bashevis Singer

God Him Life Novel

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When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Am Boy Call Grown

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We write not only for children but also for their parents. They, too, are serious children.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Also Children Only Parents

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Writing is boring, very boring, and it takes so much patience.

Ingmar Bergman

Boring Much Patience Takes

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Originality is not seen in single words or even in sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Even His Man Originality

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A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Basically Good Good Writer Mankind

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The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Basket Best Best Friend Friend

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Nathaniel Hawthorne

Damn Easy Easy Reading Hard

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I felt a little green, because Shakespeare writes the thought process within the text; it was tricky not to think of what to say and then say it, and instead just deliver the lines.

Neil Patrick Harris

Because Deliver Felt Green

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The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Cash Ends Family First

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I got inspiration to write 'Love Don't Lie' while sermon was being preached on a Sunday morning.

Johnny Drille

Inspiration Write Love Sermon

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I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do ever - was write novels.

J. K. Rowling

Convinced Ever Novels Only

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The new spirituality will bring about what I'm calling the 'end of better.' And that is in fact what is called for in the next of the series of books that I've been writing.

Neale Donald Walsch

About Been Better Books

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The writers who have the deepest influence on one are those one reads in ones more impressionable, early life, and often it is the more youthful works of those writers that leave the deepest imprint.

J. M. Coetzee

Deepest Early Early Life Imprint

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The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

J. M. Coetzee

Certainly Dead Feel Idea

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I will carry on writing, to be sure. But I don't know if I would want to publish again after Harry Potter.

J. K. Rowling

After Again Carry Harry

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If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart.

J. M. Coetzee

About Animal Animals Belong

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I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant presence when I write about human beings and their relations to the natural world.

J. M. Coetzee

About Beings Constant Human

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Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?

J. M. Coetzee

After Claims Diligently Elizabeth

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Everyone seems to see bleakness and despair in my books. I don't read them that way. I see myself as writing comic books, books about ordinary people trying to live ordinary, dull, happy lives while the world is falling to pieces around them.

J. M. Coetzee

About Around Book Comic

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All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

J. M. Coetzee

Autobiography Storytelling Writing

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" Quotes and Sayings About writ

Oh, friend, forget not, when you fain would note In me a beauty that was never mine, How first you knew me in a book I wrote, How first you loved me for a written line....

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I spend so much time on the screen when I am writing, the last thing you want to do is spend more time on the Internet looking at a screen. That's what I hate about all this technology.

Irvine Welsh

Basically, particularly in Britain, it's a hegemonic thing that people who write tend to come from the leisure classes. They can afford the time and the books.

Irvine Welsh

Every kind of book I've written has been written in a different way. There has not been any set time for writing, any set way, I haven't re-invented the process every time but I almost have.

Irvine Welsh

I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction.

Irvine Welsh

I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.

Ingmar Bergman

I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

Irvine Welsh

I don't know where I would place myself in the literary landscape. I really just write the book that I would want to read. And I put on the blinders, and I really - it is, for me, that simple.

Dan Brown

The establishment, the newspapers, they try to create something called Scottish literature, but when people are actually going to write, they are not going to necessarily prescribe to that, they'll write what they feel.

Irvine Welsh

Irvine Welsh

Irvine Welsh

I think one reason my books have found mainstream success is that they're written from a skeptical point of view.

Dan Brown

When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories, then they'd turn into novels. I was biased toward music.

Irvine Welsh

I still get up every morning at 4 A.M. I write seven days a week, including Christmas. And I still face a blank page every morning, and my characters don't really care how many books I've sold.

Dan Brown

I have written a lot about the fine arts, but I'd never written about the literary arts, and so on some level Dante really, you know, spoke to me, as new ground but also familiar ground.

Dan Brown

When I'm not writing, I read loads of fiction, but I've been writing quite constantly lately so I've been reading a lot of nonfiction - philosophy, religion, science, history, social or cultural studies.

Irvine Welsh

When people start writing there is this idea that you have to get everything right first time, every sentence has to be perfect, every paragraph has to be perfect, every chapter has to be perfect, but what you're doing is not any kind of public show, until you're ready for it.

Irvine Welsh

Writing is about culture and should be about everything. That's what makes it what it is.

Irvine Welsh

I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.

Irvine Welsh

If you believe the people who love you, you get lazy. And if you believe the people who hate you, you become... maybe intimidated, or whatever the word might be, and you don't write as well.

Dan Brown

It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.

Irvine Welsh

When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.

Irvine Welsh

I will not write a lame follow-up. It could take me 20 years. But I will never turn in a book that I'm not happy with.

Dan Brown

I write slowly. I actually write quickly, but I throw out so much material.

Dan Brown

The idea is not enough. And the most annoying thing for me as a writer is that people will come up to me and say, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I'm not a writer, but I've got a great story.'

Irvine Welsh

I don't really think about genre. I like to write books that I'd love to read myself.

Dan Brown

I'm trying to write books that taste like ice cream but have the nutrition of vegetables.

Dan Brown

Writing is a solitary journey, so I am always excited to go out on book tour and meet readers one-on-one.

Dan Brown

I don't perceive an audience at all when I write a book. It's pure self-indulgence.

Irvine Welsh

Isaac Bashevis Singer

When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

We write not only for children but also for their parents. They, too, are serious children.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Ingmar Bergman

Originality is not seen in single words or even in sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Nathaniel Hawthorne

I felt a little green, because Shakespeare writes the thought process within the text; it was tricky not to think of what to say and then say it, and instead just deliver the lines.

Neil Patrick Harris

The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

I got inspiration to write 'Love Don't Lie' while sermon was being preached on a Sunday morning.

Johnny Drille