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William H. Gass Quotes about Writing

All William H. Gass Quotes Art Hate Writing quotes
The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

William H. Gass
Book, Writing, Kids
William H. Gass (2010). “A Temple of Texts”, p.37, Knopf Group E-Books

It’s not the word made flesh we want in writing, in poetry and fiction, but the flesh made word

William H. Gass
Writing, Want, Fiction
William H. Gass (2014). “On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry”, p.32, New York Review of Books

I publish a piece in order to kill it, so that I won't have to fool around with it any longer.

William H. Gass
Writing, Order, Pieces
William H. Gass, Theodore G. Ammon (2003). “Conversations with William H. Gass”, p.34, Univ. Press of Mississippi

For me, the short story is not a character sketch, a mouse trap, an epiphany, a slice of suburban life. It is the flowering of a symbol center. It is a poem grafted onto sturdier stock.

William H. Gass
Writing, Character, Stories

I write because I hate. A lot. Hard.

William H. Gass
Hate, Writing, I Hate
William H. Gass, Theodore G. Ammon (2003). “Conversations with William H. Gass”, p.8, Univ. Press of Mississippi

If you were a fully realized person-whatever the hell that would be-you wouldn't fool around writing books.

William H. Gass
Book, Writing, Would Be
William H. Gass, Theodore G. Ammon (2003). “Conversations with William H. Gass”, p.38, Univ. Press of Mississippi

So to the wretched writer I should like to say that there’s one body only whose request for your caresses is not vulgar, is not unchaste, untoward, or impolite: the body of your work itself; for you must remember that your attentions will not merely celebrate a beauty but create one; that yours is love that brings it own birth with it, just as Plato has declared, and that you should therefore give up the blue things of this world in favor of the words which say them

William H. Gass
Plato, Giving Up, Writing
William H. Gass (2014). “On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry”, p.89, New York Review of Books

Getting even is one reason for writing.

William H. Gass
Writing, Reason

The expression to write something down suggests a descent of thought to the fingers whose movements immediately falsify it.

William H. Gass
Writing, Expression, Movement

I usually have poor to absent relations with editors because they have a habit of desiring changes and I resist changes.

William H. Gass
Writing, Editors, Habit
William H. Gass, Theodore G. Ammon (2003). “Conversations with William H. Gass”, p.38, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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