Writing Quotes · Page 474

Your emotional life is not written in cement during childhood. You write each chapter as you go along.

— Harry Stack Sullivan

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.

— Herman Melville

I'm my own "ideal reader" in the sense that I write novels that I would want to read.

— Steve Erickson

“In art nothing is more secondary than the author's intentions.”

— Jorge Luis Borges

I am happy writing and being a producer not a director.

— Kanika Dhillon

It isn’t much use writing slogans on a wall if you plan to total the building.

— Andrew Vachss

I hardly remember how I started to write poetry. It's hard to imagine what I thought poetry could do.

— David Antin

The writing I do makes great demands on translators.

— W. G. Sebald

I got a job in advertising. So even though I was writing, I was always supporting myself. That's the thing that would…

— Peter Carey

I do not write often now - not for want of something to say, but from a loathing of all I see…

— Mary Boykin Chesnut

I try to write three jokes every day. I don't sit down and write them, it's just things that pop into my…

— Zach Galifianakis

Of course I planned to write the Great American Novel; that lasted about a week, at which point I decided I had…

— Jasmine Cresswell

The funny thing is, about the time I let go of any aspiration toward worldly success, that's about the time I started…

— Ben Fountain

You always try to do your own thing. One of the things I wanted to do was to write a book that…

— George R. R. Martin

A lot of debate goes into the writing but I don't think a show can be destroyed. It's a TV show not…

— Charlie Day

Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.

— Oscar Handlin

It was Rick's Rubin idea to have the 'Brooklyn' verse repeat. It already was a story, but having that made it a…

— Scott Avett

“In some ways the goals of teaching and writing are the same. You hope to connect to someone else, to make them…

— P.F. Kluge

When I was writing my first novel, 'Elizabeth is Missing,' I was writing the only novel I had ever written and writing…

— Emma Healey

“When you are writing a novel, you as the author will wear many hats. You are the writer, reader, and most importantly…

— LaQuita Cameron

“I have been writing my heart out all my life, but only getting a living out of it now, and the attacks…

— Jack Kerouac

Realistic writing kept me stable. It kept my mind less clustered by resting my soul; pouring it onto a blank canvas. I…

— Needa Muy

Dante Alighieri is a universal poet, and great creators, they are writing for everybody always. Every single verse is very moving, and…

— Roberto Benigni

In crime fiction, I just don't write the parts that aren't a thriller and it's exactly the same in my TV reporting…

— Hank Phillippi Ryan

When I was writing in Bulgarian, I could hide behind beautiful prose.

— Miroslav Penkov

The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.

— Malcolm Cowley

If you love a young writer, maybe the best thing you can do is give them a little bit of space.

— Zadie Smith

Metaphors are an interesting example of creating magic in prose.

— Francesca Lia Block

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

— Haruki Murakami

A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.

— William Zinsser

I'm never really thinking about other people when I'm writing.

— Gracie Abrams

I didn't really sign up to be a celebrity, I only signed up to be a writer.

— Alan Moore

Most people who are writers go through periods when they can't write.

— Joyce Carol Oates

I try to write in a way where the lyrics have many meanings and you won't really know what's behind it.

— Taylor Momsen

I'm a schoolteacher and a writer. So that's what I do.

— Bruce Jackson

Bucky Katt: A bad writer is just a good writer with writer's block.

— Darby Conley

Being a good writer may result in your being nicer to more people, having a bigger positive impact.

— Marty Nemko

When I do it [writing] by myself, there's a lot more terror and uncertainty.

— Kate DiCamillo

All sorrows can be borne if you can put them into a story.

— Isak Dinesen

There is no writer's block in a newsroom. There's only unemployment block.

— Carl Hiaasen