James Thurber Quotes about Writing

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The act of writing is either something the writer dreads or actually likes, and I actually like it. Even re-writing's fun. You're getting somewhere, whether it seems to move or not.

The act of writing is either something the writer dreads or actually likes, and I actually like it. Even re-writing's fun. You're getting somewhere, whether it seems to move or not.

James Thurber

Fun, Moving, Writing

James Thurber (1990). “Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself”

Don't get it right, just get it written.

James Thurber

Inspirational Life, Writing, Comedy

James Thurber (1996). “James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)”, p.562, Library of America

Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counselling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, 'How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?' and avoid 'How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?'

James Thurber

Writing, Editing, Editors

James Thurber (1990). “Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself”

I never quite know when I'm not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, "Dammit, Thurber, stop writing." She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph.

James Thurber

Party, Writing, Wife

James Thurber, Thomas Fensch (1989). “Conversations with James Thurber”, p.61, Univ. Press of Mississippi

I write humor the way a surgeon operates, because it is a livelihood, because I have a great urge to do it, because many interesting challenges are set up, and because I have the hope it may do some good.

James Thurber

Writing, Interesting, Challenges

With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.

James Thurber

Birthday, Sarcastic, Writing

1955 In the New York Post, 30 Jun.

When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.

James Thurber

Writing, Justice, Glare

James Thurber (1990). “Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself”

I drew pictures rapidly and with few lines, because I had to write most of the pieces, too, and couldn't monkey long with the drawings. The divine urge was no higher than that.

James Thurber

Writing, Drawing, Long

James Thurber, Harrison Kinney, Rosemary A. Thurber (2002). “The Thurber letters: the wit, wisdom, and surprising life of James Thurber”, Simon and Schuster

Some American writers who have known each other for years have never met in the daytime or when both were sober.

James Thurber

Writing, Years, Sober

Quoted in NeilT Jones (ed) A Book of Days for the Literary Year (1984).

At forty my faculties may have closed up like flowers at evening, leaving me unable to write my memoirs with a fitting and discreet inaccuracy, or, having written them, unable to carry them to the publisher.

James Thurber

Flower, Writing, Leaving

James Thurber (1996). “James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)”, p.149, Library of America