Top 12 Quotes by Philip Gerard

You have to roll up your sleeves and be a stonecutter before you can become a sculptor - command of craft always precedes art: apprentice, journeyman, master.

You have to roll up your sleeves and be a stonecutter before you can become a sculptor - command of craft always precedes art: apprentice, journeyman, master.

Philip Gerard

Art, Writing, Crafts

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

Voice is one of the most elusive qualities in any story. We recognize it when we hear it, but it's hard consciously to create an authentic voice. Somehow voice seems to be the natural manifestation of all the narrative decisions we've made so far. We discover it more than we fabricate it.

Philip Gerard

Writing, Voice, Decision

For the big stuff to work credibly, you've got to get the little stuff absolutely right.

Philip Gerard

Writing, Littles, Stuff

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

The simplest tool of the writer is repetition. . . . The simplest tool of the writer is repetition.

Philip Gerard

Writing, Tools, Repetition

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

You will not read voice on the page; you will hear it in your head.

Philip Gerard

Writing, Voice, Pages

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

It's not enough simply to record the way people actually talk. The dialogue must be concentrated, shaped, dramatically moving, in a way that real-life conversation seldom is.

Philip Gerard

Real, Moving, Writing

We create an interior 'movie' in the reader's head through words on the page.

Philip Gerard

Writing, Pages, Reader

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

The habits of craft, developed day in and day out over a working lifetime, create moments of astonishment, sublime and magical effects, precisely because the writer is not thinking overtly about making art.

Philip Gerard

Art, Writing, Thinking

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

The only way to write a novel is to proceed as if you had all the time in the world.

Philip Gerard

Writing, World, Way

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press

Voice really depends on the answer to the question, Who is telling this story? . . . That will color your diction-and determine your metaphors, your sensibility.

Philip Gerard

Writing, Color, Voice

But a writing project begins not just in doubt but also in faith-that if your passion is genuine, if you have mastered the elements of your craft, in the act of writing you will learn the rest of what you need to know in order to do justice to your subject.

Philip Gerard

Passion, Writing, Order

Philip Gerard (2000). “Writing a Book That Makes a Difference”, Story Press