Writing Quotes · Page 535

It seems to me now that the deep structures [in writing] are often subconscious and set in childhood.

— Zadie Smith

“You forget," I said, "I'm a writer and the Muses are the daughters of Memory.”

— Aldous Huxley

“All good writing is like swimming underwater and holding your breath.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

The best journalism is sometimes about footnotes—when we write small to say something big.

— Anthony Shadid

You must become an expert on a product, service or anything you write about to really be effective.

— Joseph Sugarman

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

— Mark Twain

“A genuine poet is one who writes about experiences before they happen to him.”

— T.S Eliot

Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.

— Anonymous

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't…

— John Irving

The act of writing is either something the writer dreads or actually likes, and I actually like it. Even re-writing's fun. You're…

— James Thurber

Writing in a near-frenzy is wonderful and freeing but, for me, it does not result in a nice shiny novel. Instead what…

— Erin Morgenstern

“The elements of the written word can be purely magical. I read and I write...I inspire and I’m living.”

— C. Toni Graham

I didn't want to be either the cre'me de la cre'me or a martyr. I'd rather be a novelty, especially in a…

— Joseph Brodsky

Were not one thing, as human beings, so any character that is written uni-dimensional, thats just a shallow character with shallow writing…

— Kari Matchett

“Storytellers are not priests who commune with an ethereal realm but artisans, like dumpling makers, if somewhat slower.”

— David Mitchell

Only something extremely dire and disabling will ever stop a real writer from writing. Retirement is never an option.

— Warren Adler

You will feel discouraged; you will lose confidence in your abilities; you will be bored with the characters–and the only way to…

— John Dufresne

It's funny when you write a song - it's easy for me now - but there's almost a second stage where you…

— Kate Bush

I consider myself a person like everyone else, and I take my time writing my records because I feel like it captures…

— Andrew McMahon

To write about history or language is supposed to be within the reach of every man. To write about natural science is…

— Edward Augustus Freeman

“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. As I walked, my mind was busy…

— Robert Louis Stevenson

If God has given graces to some good women, revealing to them something holy and good through His Holy Scriptures, should they,…

— Marie Dentiere

“I hate to be a nag, but you have got to read. Like most authors, I run creative writing workshops from time…

— Sarah Harrison

From the place by the railing at the edge of the tracks on the summer evening I return across the city to…

— Sherwood Anderson

I began writing poetry when I was about 10. Bad poetry, but you start with bad poetry.

— Jonas Mekas

You have to write your own story, your own graph and rhythm.

— Chunky Pandey

“Words I write... go through my mind, like tasting fine wine on the lips.”

— Jennifer Webb

When I am writing, I'm very much on the ground, on the same ground my characters are treading.

— Graham Swift

I wouldn't have wanted anyone to teach me how to write. That's my own taste. I prefer to stumble on it.

— Chinua Achebe

It seems to me that [Andy Cohen] can write these diaries forever.

— Anderson Cooper

Sure, it's simple, writing for kids... Just as simple as bringing them up.

— Anonymous

I think if the writing comes too easily, it shows - it's usually hard to read.

— Tracy Kidder

My kind of director is an actor-director who writes.

— Orson Welles

I don't think that writers have any responsibility to be good neighbors to the audience.

— Jez Butterworth

In my spare time, I paint, garden, hike and enjoy massages for my weary writer's back.

— Rolonda Watts

I write about rats because they scare the hell out of me. I think we tend to write out our phobias.

— Stephen King

The written word is the link between the past and the future.

— Lincoln Barnett

“The best marketing you can do for your book is to start writing the next one.”

— Ryan Holiday

Style is the thing that's always a bit phony, and at the same time you cannot write without style.

— Elizabeth Bowen

Hiring someone to write your autobiography is like hiring someone to take a bath for you

— Mae West