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Mark Twain Quotes about Writing - Page 2

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There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of

There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself.

Mark Twain
Book, Writing, Years
Mark Twain (1966). “Mark Twain's Satires and Burlesques”, p.4, Univ of California Press

Experience of life (not of books) is the only capital usable in such a book as you have attempted; one can make no judicious use of this capital while it is new.

Mark Twain
Book, Writing, Use
Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.54, Chartwell

I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience.

Mark Twain
Writing, Boys, Men
Mark Twain, Hamlin Lewis Hill (1967). “Mark Twain's Letters to His Publishers, 1867-1894”, p.314, Univ of California Press

Experience is an author's most valuable asset; experience is the thing that puts the muscle and the breath and the warm blood into the book he writes.

Mark Twain
Book, Writing, Blood
Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.110, Courier Corporation

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them―then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.

Mark Twain
Flower, Writing, Mean

It is no use to keep private information which you can't show off.

Mark Twain
Writing, Use, Information
Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.27, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

When you catch an adjective, kill it.

Mark Twain
Writing, Editing, Plain Language
Mark Twain, Michael Patrick Hearn (1981). “The annotated Huckleberry Finn: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Random House Value Pub

Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.

Mark Twain
Inspirational, Funny, Writing
"Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend".

We write frankly and freely, but then we modify before we print.

Mark Twain
Writing, Censorship, Print
Mark Twain (1994). “Mark Twain on the damned human race”

If I'd seen a playwright ever write an' play at the same time, I'd have given 'em more of a chance at cards. Can I get an 'amen?'

Mark Twain
Writing, Play, Cards

What are the proper proportions of a maxim? A minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.

Mark Twain
Inspirational, Sarcastic, Writing
More Tramps Abroad ch. 23, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

I never write "metropolis" for seven cents when I can write "city" and get paid the same.

Mark Twain
Writing, Cities, Seven

Let us guess that whenever we read a sentence & like it, we unconsciously store it away in our model-chamber; & it goes, with the myriad of its fellows, to the building, brick by brick, of the eventual edifice which we call our style.

Mark Twain
Writing, Style, Bricks
Mark Twain (1992). “Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1852-1890”

When I want to read something nice, I sit down and write it myself.

Mark Twain
Nice, Writing, Want

To write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers pay within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.

Mark Twain
Writing, Years, Three
"Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890".

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.

Mark Twain
Writing, Pay, Offers
Mark Twain (1992). “Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890”, p.644, Library of America

Anybody can have ideas-the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.

Mark Twain
Writing, Plain Language, Ideas
Mark Twain (1990). “Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 2: 1867-1868”, p.183, Univ of California Press

In Austria an editor who can write well is valuable, but he is not likely to remain so unless he can handle a sabre with charm.

Mark Twain
Writing, Editors, Austria
Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.7777, Delphi Classics

I never write Metropolis for seven cents because I can get the same price for city. I never write policeman because I can get the same money for cop.

Mark Twain
Money, Writing, Cities
Mark Twain, Bob Blaisdell (2013). “Great Speeches”, p.134, Courier Corporation

The editor of a newspaper cannot be independent, but must work with one hand tied behind him by party and patrons, and be content to utter only half or two-thirds of his mind . writers of all kinds are manacled servants of the public. We write frankly and fearlessly, but then we "modify" before we print.

Mark Twain
Party, Independent, Writing
Mark Twain (2017). “Mark Twain, the Globetrotter: Complete Travel Books, Memoirs & Anecdotes (Illustrated Edition): A Tramp Abroad, The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, Old Times on the Mississippi, Life on the Mississippi, Following the Equator & Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion, With Author’s Biography”, p.1235, e-artnow

God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention.

Mark Twain
God, Writing, Attention
Mark Twain (2004). “The Letters of Mark Twain”, p.79, 1st World Publishing

Writing is the easiest thing in the world.... Just try it sometime. I sit up with a pipe in my mouth and a board on my knees and I scribble away.

Mark Twain
Writing, Trying, Boards

No one can write perfect English and keep it up through a stretch of ten chapters. It has never been done.

Mark Twain
Writing, Perfect, Done
Mark Twain (2015). “Christian Science”, p.66, Sheba Blake Publishing

When an honest writer discovers an imposition it is his simple duty to strip it bare and hurl it down from its place of honor, no matter who suffers by it; any other course would render him unworthy of the public confidence.

Mark Twain
Writing, Simple, Honor
Mark Twain (2016). “A Tramp Abroad”, p.152, Xist Publishing

A man who is not born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality, and he trusts he can plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results.

Mark Twain
Writing, Men, Ideas
Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.2943, GENERAL PRESS

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