Writing Quotes · Page 232

When I write a song, it's all about the riff - the riff first, then the words come later.

— Evan Dando

“History is the nothing people write about a nothing.”

— William Golding

Writing reminds you that you're never alone. Writing and reading is to be optimistic.

— Richard Flanagan

“I really think that writing about sex is writing about the mind.”

— Jane DeLynn

I wouldn't mind writing a long book which is going to occupy me for the rest of my life.

— Philip Roth

There is a difference if we see something with a pencil in our hand or without one.

— Paul Valery

When my story stalls on me, I've played my hand too soon.

— T. Jefferson Parker

The only reward to be expected from literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds.

— Voltaire

You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear.

— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

There is a lot to be said for collaboration, and it should be seen as just another way to do things as…

— James Patterson

So I'm writing more highly personalized and intellectual music, and I think that's good. It might take longer to find me, but…

— Paula Cole

Radical Muslims fly planes into buildings. Radical Christians kill abortion doctors. Radical Atheists write books.

— Hemant Mehta

I always find music guys writing about love. Think of something else for a change. I'm sorry, but it's been done, and…

— Jesse Spencer

I have to believe everything I write is brand new and I'm writing in this way about these people in a completely…

— Kit Reed

If you do improvising, it can sometimes end up being a waste of time. And if you do that, it's more or…

— Giovanni Ribisi

The English probably do that wordplay kind of humour and whimsy better than anyone, and I've always felt that my writing goes…

— Graeme Base

I do increasingly feel like becoming a better writer is about trying to find new ways to solve the same problems over…

— Mike Young

I don't know how it is with other writers, but most of the time when I finish [reading] a story or novel,…

— F. Paul Wilson

Writing a book about Jeremy Corbyn, set out with two objectives. The first was simple: to explain how he became the leader…

— Alex Nunns

One piece of advice can be universally handed out, and it applies equally to speaking, understanding, reading, and writing. If in the…

— Mario Pei

I recognize this in my writing process. A consistent writing structure opens the door to amazing insights. I recognize the truth of…

— Mary Anne Radmacher

I've always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and…

— Bill Gates

Improvisation, it is a mystery. You can write a book about it, but by the end no one still knows what it…

— Stephane Grappelli

I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until…

— John Irving

I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.

— Colm Toibin

I never know as a writer when I set out into a novel where it's going to take me.

— Kim Edwards

To tell the truth, I don't read children's books. I'm an adult. I just write them.

— William Steig

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average.

— Derek Walcott

I am basically analytical, not creative; my writing is simply a creative way of handling analysis.

— Philip K. Dick

I never have found out all I want to know about writing and realize I never will.

— Lloyd Alexander

The books I'm writing are houses that I build for myself.

— Etel Adnan

I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.

— Joseph Heller

I want to be a bi-continental working actor and writer.

— Shenaz Treasury

The real hero of programming is the one who writes negative code,

— Douglas McIlroy

Most don't live inside their heads as a writer does, having conversations with her own ideas.

— Lynn Coady

I got where I am through a series of flukes - I'm basically a musician and a writer, not a pop star.

— David Essex

The power of words written or spoken, have life. They can change the world

— Anonymous

One of my fears is not writing. I don't know how to do anything else.

— Paul Theroux

Write your own story... because you never want to end up just a footnote in somebody else's story.

— JOHNREYES

I'm a firm believer in putting your experiences in your writing, of bleeding into the page.

— Tom King