“The instruction here is not for every kind of writer - not for the writer of nurse books or thrillers or porno… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Good writers may “tell” about almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings. One may tell the reader that the character went… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“There seems little or no hope for the adult writer who produces sentences like these: "Her cheeks were thick and smooth and… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination than only writing about what you know — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“In writing short stories—as in writing novels—take one thing at a time. (For some writers, this advice I'm giving may apply best… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“A good writer is likely to know and use, or find out and use, the words for common architectural features, like "lintel,"… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Theme is not imposed on the story but evoke from within it--initally an intuitive but finally an intellectual act on the part… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“The age old idea of human dignity comes to apply even to the indigent, even to the slaves, even to immigrants, now… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“It is for this reason that Aristotle recommends that the writer begin "in the middle of things" and fill in the exposition… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
A common and usually unfortunate answer is “Write about what you know.” Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination, nothing is… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“The shoddy writer wants only publication. He fails to recognize that almost anyone willing to devote between twelve and fourteen hours a… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“It is the importance of this quality of generosity in fiction that requires a measure of childishness in the writer. People who… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“[the writer] must copy, with his finite mind, the process of the infinite 'I AM.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Like other kinds of intelligence, the storyteller's is partly natural, partly trained. It is composed of several qualities, most of which, in… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“One cannot judge in advance whether or not the idea of the story is worthwhile because until one has finished writing the… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“The people I've known who wanted to become writers, knowing what it meant, did become writers.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“He must shape simultaneously (in an expanding creative moment) his characters, plot, and setting, each inextricably connected to the others; he must… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“When a writer first begins to write, he or she feels the same first thrill of achievement that the young gambler or… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“The writer's characters must stand before us with a wonderful clarity, such continuous clarity that nothing they do strikes us as improbable… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“As a general rule, highly rational writers (like Nabokov) write most comfortably in the morning, and mainly intuitive writers write most comfortably… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“The very qualities that make one a writer in the first place contribute to the block: hypersensitivity, stubbornness, insatiability, and so on.… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Writer's block comes from the feeling that one is doing the wrong thing or doing the right thing badly. Fiction written for… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Nothing is sillier than the creative writing teacher's dictum "Write about what you know." But whether you're writing about people or dragons,… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“one sign of a writer’s potential is his especially sharp ear—and eye—for language.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“All to often, on the long road up, young leaders become servants of what is rather than shapers of what might be.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived, And now… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“They only think they think. No total vision, total system, merely schemes with a vague family resemblance, no more identity than bridges and, say,… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Except in stock locutions, such as "You were paid yesterday," "The Germans were defeated," or "The project was abandoned," the passive voice is virtually… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“The instruction here is not for every kind of writer - not for the writer of nurse books or thrillers or porno or the… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“Good writers may “tell” about almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings. One may tell the reader that the character went to a… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“the chief offense in bad fiction: we sense that characters are being manipulated, forced to do things they would not really do.” — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“There seems little or no hope for the adult writer who produces sentences like these: "Her cheeks were thick and smooth and held a… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
“In any long fiction, Henry James remarked, use of the first-person point of view is barbaric. James may go too far, but his point… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination than only writing about what you know — John Gardner Copy Share Image
A nation that values bad philosophy above good plumbing will have neither good philosophy nor good plumbing — John Gardner Copy Share Image
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else… — John Gardner Copy Share Image
