I'll give you the sole secret of short-story writing, and here it is: Rule 1. Write stories that please yourself. There is… — O. Henry Copy Share Image
When Kirk dies it was very emotional and very strange, in the moment and all the way through the process. I'd read… — Ronald D. Moore Copy Share Image
“Insofar as craft and poetics in a poem have a politics, I wanted to avoid that brittle enjambed-prose-sentence-lyric verse, where you have… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
Digging up new information and speculating on it isn't your primary purpose when you're writing a biography intended for young readers, unless… — Russell Freedman Copy Share Image
In general, I would think that at present prose writers are much in advance of the poets. In the old days, I… — William H. Gass Copy Share Image
“One of your most ancient writers, a historian named Herodotus, tells of a thief who was to be executed. As he was… — Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle Copy Share Image
I have no reason to sit home and write songs all day without going out and playing for the folks. And I… — Guy Clark Copy Share Image
“[Bastian] didn't like books in which dull, cranky writers describe humdrum events in the very humdrum lives of humdrum people. Reality gave… — Michael Ende Copy Share Image
I hear people talk in my head and I write it down. I choose where they live and how they dress to… — Nicole Holofcener Copy Share Image
“As writers we intend to make a difference, to alter people's lives for the greater good. . .this is why we write,… — Lee Gutkind Copy Share Image
I feel that when I began writing, I had a need to know more about the play before I got into it.… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
It seems to me that the novel is very much alive as a form. Without any question, every epoch has its own… — Ilya Ehrenburg Copy Share Image
“Yes, I know what you mean about writing and writers. We seem to have lost the target. Writers seem to write to… — Charles Bukowski Copy Share Image
I'll put it this way: with the kind of films that I do - creatively driven, with interesting directors and writers -… — Jack Reynor Copy Share Image
I was really surprised at the success of 'House of Sand and Fog,' because it is so awfully dark. Believe it or… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
“Awful first drafts are fine—Agree with this. If you don’t finish something, you’ll never get in the game. Just quell the voice… — Jamie Freveletti Copy Share Image
“To write books is easy, it requires only pen and ink and the ever-patient paper. To print books is a little more… — Stanley Unwin Copy Share Image
Now I'm not going to go, "Oh my God, what are people saying about me?" I had a choice to be a… — Carla Bruni Copy Share Image
I discovered ... that a novel has nothing to do with words in the first instance. Writing a novel is a cosmological… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of… — H. P. Lovecraft Copy Share Image
In Europe, I'm recognized on the street sometimes. And that's cool, because I don't have to live there and deal with it… — George Pelecanos Copy Share Image
“Writers are asked, 'How could you know so much about [fill in the profession]?' The answer, if the writing satisfies, is that… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
“Van Houten, I’m a good person but a shitty writer. You’re a shitty person but a good writer. We’d make a good… — John Green Copy Share Image
When I was thinking about these women characters, no matter how bad a person I am - a bad writer, my limitations,… — Junot Diaz Copy Share Image
“It tastes good, garlic and salt in it, with the half-sweet white wine of Orvieto on scanty grass under great trees where… — Basil Bunting Copy Share Image
“I don’t believe in classes where students criticize each other’s manuscripts. Such criticism is generally composed in equal parts of ignorance, flattery,… — Flannery O'Connor Copy Share Image
“An actor, to spend his entire life as an actor, has to have the mind of a child. A writer at sixty… — Fred Allen Copy Share Image
The invention of photography has dealt a mortal blow to the old modes of expression, in painting as well as in poetry,… — Andre Breton Copy Share Image
I think I was a feminist before the word was invented. By the time I came across feminist books by American or… — Andrew Denton Copy Share Image
I don't like to claim that I am an expert on anything, but I have enough knowledge about climate science and climate… — Willie Soon Copy Share Image
My Irish Catholic mother loved romantic movies, provided they ended with a kiss before the screen went dark. If things went any… — Catherine Brady Copy Share Image
I wrote lots of scripts that never got made and they were terrible. I thought they were good at the time. You… — Nicole Holofcener Copy Share Image
“Sometimes, when it's going badly, she wonders if what she believes to be a love of the written word is really just… — David Nicholls Copy Share Image
“I do use husbands a bit (in books). It's what writers of this kind do, actually. I am quite careful to try… — Fay Weldon Copy Share Image
What it is is that comedy is underrepresented in every actor's life, because it's so bloody difficult to write. Anyone can write,… — Michael Caine Copy Share Image
“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing 1. Never open a book with weather. 2. Avoid prologues. 3. Never use a verb other… — Elmore Leonard Copy Share Image
Honestly, when you start talking about genres, you're talking as much about the business side of writing as anything else. Certainly there… — Kristin Hannah Copy Share Image
Yes?’ he asked, looking at me over the sheet. ‘I’m a writer temporarily down on my inspirations.’ ‘Oh, a writer, eh?’ ‘Yes.’… — Charles Bukowski Copy Share Image
Twenty-seven people sang 'Wind Beneath My Wings' before I got around to it. A lot of people saw the movie that I… — Bette Midler Copy Share Image
“How anybody can compose a story by word of mouth face to face with a bored-looking secretary with a notebook is more… — P.G. Wodehouse Copy Share Image
![“[Bastian] didn't like books in which dull, cranky writers describe humdrum events in the very humdrum lives of humdrum people. Reality gave him enough of that kind of thing, why should he read about it? Besides, he couldn't stand when a writer tried to convince him of something. And these humdrum…” quote by Michael Ende](https://sms4smile.com/q/i/ab1/michael-ende-2862_books_bastian-didn-t-like-books-in-which-dull_569407.jpg)
![“Writers are asked, 'How could you know so much about [fill in the profession]?' The answer, if the writing satisfies, is that one makes it up. And the job, my job, as a dramatist, was not to write accurately, but to write persuasively. If and when I do my job well, subsequent cowboys, as it were…” quote by David Mamet](https://sms4smile.com/q/i/edc/david-mamet-1178_career_writers-are-asked-how-could-you-know-so_284790.jpg)
