Writing Quotes - Page 159

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

The surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definitive, and concrete. The greatest writers - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare - are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

I mean, if we're concerned genuinely with writing, I think we probably get on with our work. I think this is very true of English writers, but perhaps not so true of French writers, who seem to read each other passionately, extensively, and endlessly, and who then talk about it to each other - which is splendid.

I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it.

When my horse is running good, I don't stop to give him sugar.

Neither Christ nor Buddha nor Socrates wrote a book, for to do so is to exchange life for a logical process.

To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent. A reporter can write equally well about everything that is presented to his view, but a creative writer can do his best only with what lies within the range and character of his deepest sympathies.

Throughout my early career, I would write from five to ten in the morning every day before going to my office, a habit that has stayed with me since.

A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again.

Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.

Reviewing music or reviewing anything is a writing job. It's nice if you are experienced in the field you are writing about, but writing is what you are doing.

I'm not a big gadget guy. When I write, I'll do the whole thing by hand, and then I'll put it into the computer.

Writing enlarges the landscape of the mind.

Hardly anybody ever writes anything nice about introverts. Extroverts rule. This is rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts. We are been taught to be ashamed of not being 'outgoing'. But a writer's job is ingoing.

When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love.

You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.

I definitely shut down sometimes. I always just go into my own little cocoon and write, and I surround myself with as much music as possible.

The story of Jesus makes no sense to me. God sent his only son. Why could God only have one son and why would he have to die? It's just bad writing, really. And it's really terrible in about the second act.

One has to work very carefully with what is in between the words. What is not said. Which is measure, which is rhythm and so on. So, it is what you don't write that frequently gives what you do write its power.

It's rather mystifying when you think about writing songs - where they come from, and how they're born.

I like pens. My writing is so amazing there's never a need to erase

This is a stamina game, so don't despair if you run down a blind alley and have to start over, or if you get another rejection letter. Every successful writer has gone through that, but they kept writing and didn't quit until they made it happen.

If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted that you will wish that you were dead.

We must allow ourselves to think, we must dare to think, even though we fail. It is in the nature of things that we always fail, because we suddenly find it impossible to order our thoughts, because the process of thinking requires us to consider every thought there is, every possible thought. Fundamentally we have always failed, like all the others, whoever they were, even the greatest minds. At some point, they suddenly failed and their system collapsed, as is proved by their writings, which we admire because they venture farthest into failure. To think is to fail, I thought.