--- title: "8 Literary Composition Quotes by 8 authors" description: "Browse 8 Literary Composition quotes by 8 authors. Discover the best Literary Composition sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7b/wilkie-collins-2078_accomplishment_habits-of-literary-composition-are-perfe_227191.png" --- > [Habits of literary composition are perfectly familiar to me. One of the rarest of all the intellectual accomplishments that a man can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilkie-collins/habits-of-literary-composition-are-perfectly-familiar-to-me-one-of/) [Wilkie Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilkie-collins/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7b/wilkie-collins-2078_accomplishment_habits-of-literary-composition-are-perfe_227191.png) > [ For more than twenty years he \[Blanchard\] toiled on through the most fatiguing paths of literary composition, mostly in periodicals, often anonymously;… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-laman-blanchard/for-more-than-twenty-years-he-blanchard-toiled-on-through-the-most/) [Samuel Laman Blanchard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-laman-blanchard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58f/samuel-laman-blanchard-25787_chance_for-more-than-twenty-years-he-blanchard_393277.jpg) > [“Sometimes I think that creativity is a matter of seeing, or stumbling over, unobvious similarities between things—like composing a fresh metaphor, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-mitchell/sometimes-i-think-that-creativity-is-a-matter-of-seeing-or-stumbling/) [David Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-mitchell/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a6/david-mitchell-264_creativity_sometimes-i-think-that-creativity-is-a-m_396777.jpg) > [“A writer discovers what he knows as he knows it, i.e., as he makes it. No artist writes in order to objectify…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-sorrentino/a-writer-discovers-what-he-knows-as-he-knows-it-i-e-as-he-makes-it-no/) [Gilbert Sorrentino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-sorrentino/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/500/gilbert-sorrentino-25308_art_a-writer-discovers-what-he-knows-as-he-k_436746.jpg) > [In literary composition a well-chosen quotation lights up the page like a fine engraving...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-francis-henry-king/in-literary-composition-a-well-chosen-quotation-lights-up-the-page/) [William Francis Henry King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-francis-henry-king/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/880/william-francis-henry-king-719_chosen_in-literary-composition-a-well-chosen-qu_1398725.jpg) > [Of all the species of literary composition, perhaps biography is the most delightful. The attention concentrated on one individual gives a unity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hall/of-all-the-species-of-literary-composition-perhaps-biography-is-the/) [Robert Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hall/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/robert-hall-44523_attention_of-all-the-species-of-literary-compositi_1491483.jpg) > [SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ambrose-bierce/satire-n-an-obsolete-kind-of-literary-composition-in-which-the-vices-2/) [Ambrose Bierce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ambrose-bierce/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/820/ambrose-bierce-140_books_satire-n-an-obsolete-kind-of-literary-co_1923035.jpg) > [As any competent student of literary composition knows, the more natural and casual a voice sounds in print, the more likely it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-murray/as-any-competent-student-of-literary-composition-knows-the-more/) [Albert Murray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-murray/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/979/albert-murray-37953_again_as-any-competent-student-of-literary-com_2720142.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/literary-composition/#itemlist", "name": "Literary Composition Quotes", "numberOfItems": 8, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Habits of literary composition are perfectly familiar to me. One of the rarest of all the intellectual accomplishments that a man can possess is the grand faculty of arranging his ideas. Immense privilege! I possess it. Do you?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Wilkie Collins" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilkie-collins/habits-of-literary-composition-are-perfectly-familiar-to-me-one-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7b/wilkie-collins-2078_accomplishment_habits-of-literary-composition-are-perfe_227191.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7b/wilkie-collins-2078_accomplishment_habits-of-literary-composition-are-perfe_227191.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7b/wilkie-collins-2078_accomplishment_habits-of-literary-composition-are-perfe_227191.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Habits of literary composition are perfectly familiar to me. One of the rarest of all the intellectual…” — Wilkie Collins", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "For more than twenty years he [Blanchard] toiled on through the most fatiguing paths of literary composition, mostly in periodicals, often anonymously; pleasing and lightly instructing thousands, but gaining none of the prizes, whether of weighty reputation or popular renown, which more fortunate chances, or more pretending modes of investing talent, have given in our day to men of half his merits.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Samuel Laman Blanchard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-laman-blanchard/for-more-than-twenty-years-he-blanchard-toiled-on-through-the-most/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58f/samuel-laman-blanchard-25787_chance_for-more-than-twenty-years-he-blanchard_393277.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58f/samuel-laman-blanchard-25787_chance_for-more-than-twenty-years-he-blanchard_393277.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58f/samuel-laman-blanchard-25787_chance_for-more-than-twenty-years-he-blanchard_393277.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“For more than twenty years he [Blanchard] toiled on through the most fatiguing paths of literary…” — Samuel Laman Blanchard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Sometimes I think that creativity is a matter of seeing, or stumbling over, unobvious similarities between things—like composing a fresh metaphor, but on a more complex scale. One night in Hiroshima it occurred to me that the moon behind a certain cloud formation looked very like a painkiller dissolving in a glass of water. I didn’t work toward that simile, it was simply there: I was mugged, as it were, by the similarity between these two very different things. Literary composition can be a similar process. The writer’s real world and the writer’s fictional world are compared, and these comparisons turned into text. But other times literary composition can be a plain old slog, and nothing to do with zones or inspiration. It’s world making and the peopling of those worlds, complete with time lines and heartache.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "David Mitchell" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-mitchell/sometimes-i-think-that-creativity-is-a-matter-of-seeing-or-stumbling/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a6/david-mitchell-264_creativity_sometimes-i-think-that-creativity-is-a-m_396777.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a6/david-mitchell-264_creativity_sometimes-i-think-that-creativity-is-a-m_396777.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a6/david-mitchell-264_creativity_sometimes-i-think-that-creativity-is-a-m_396777.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Sometimes I think that creativity is a matter of seeing, or stumbling over, unobvious similarities between…” — David Mitchell", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“A writer discovers what he knows as he knows it, i.e., as he makes it. No artist writes in order to objectify an “idea” already formed. It is the poem or novel or story that quite precisely tells him what he didn't know he knew: he knows, that is, only in terms of his writing. This is, of course, simply another way of saying that literary composition is not the placing of a held idea into a waiting form.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gilbert Sorrentino" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-sorrentino/a-writer-discovers-what-he-knows-as-he-knows-it-i-e-as-he-makes-it-no/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/500/gilbert-sorrentino-25308_art_a-writer-discovers-what-he-knows-as-he-k_436746.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/500/gilbert-sorrentino-25308_art_a-writer-discovers-what-he-knows-as-he-k_436746.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/500/gilbert-sorrentino-25308_art_a-writer-discovers-what-he-knows-as-he-k_436746.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A writer discovers what he knows as he knows it, i.e., as he makes it. 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The attention concentrated on one individual gives a unity to the materials of which it is composed, which is wanting in general history.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robert Hall" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hall/of-all-the-species-of-literary-composition-perhaps-biography-is-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/robert-hall-44523_attention_of-all-the-species-of-literary-compositi_1491483.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/robert-hall-44523_attention_of-all-the-species-of-literary-compositi_1491483.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/robert-hall-44523_attention_of-all-the-species-of-literary-compositi_1491483.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Of all the species of literary composition, perhaps biography is the most delightful. 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An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ambrose Bierce" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ambrose-bierce/satire-n-an-obsolete-kind-of-literary-composition-in-which-the-vices-2/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/820/ambrose-bierce-140_books_satire-n-an-obsolete-kind-of-literary-co_1923035.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/820/ambrose-bierce-140_books_satire-n-an-obsolete-kind-of-literary-co_1923035.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/820/ambrose-bierce-140_books_satire-n-an-obsolete-kind-of-literary-co_1923035.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“SATIRE, n. 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