Nothing mattered ... but writing books, and living the kind of life that made it possible to write them. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
The sincerity of feeling that is possible between a writer and a reader is one of the finest things I know. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
The higher processes are all processes of simplification. The novelist must learn to write, and then he must unlearn it; just as… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Many people seem to think that art is a luxury to be imported and tacked on to life. Art springs out of… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Your vivid, exciting companionship in the office must not be your audience, you must find your own quiet center of life, and… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent. A reporter can write equally well about everything that is presented… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand - a business as safe and… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
It has long been a tradition among novel writers that a book must end by everybody getting just what they wanted, or… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but a first-rate writer can only be experienced. It is just the… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
A creative writer can do his best only with what lies within the range and character of his deepest sympathies. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
I have not much faith in women in fiction.... Women are so horribly subjective and they have such scorn for the healthy… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
“If words had cost money, Tom couldn't have used them more sparingly. The adjectives were purely descriptive, relating to form and colour,… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
The test of one's decency is how much of a fight one can put up after one has stopped caring, and after… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Every fine story must leave in the mind of the sensitive reader an intangible residuum of pleasure, a cadence, a quality of… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Imagination, which is a quality writers must have, does not mean the ability to weave pretty stories out of nothing. In the… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
I don't want anyone reading my writing to think about style. I just want them to be in the story. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Pittsburgh was even more vital, more creative, more hungry for culture than New York. Pittsburgh was the birthplace of my writing. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
If you don't keep and guard and mature your force, and above all, have time and quiet to perfect your work, you… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
If [the writer] achieves anything noble, anything enduring, it must be by giving himself absolutely to his material. And this gift of… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Success is less interesting than struggle. There is great pleasure in the effort. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
“I only knew the schoolbooks said he "died in the wilderness, of a broken heart." "More than him has done that," said Antonia sadly,… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
“Have the last word ma'm," he said cheerfully. "It's a lady's privilege.” — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
"More than him has done that," said Antonia sadly, and the girls murmured assent. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
Nothing mattered ... but writing books, and living the kind of life that made it possible to write them. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
“Money and office and success are the consolations of impotence. Fortune turns kind to such solid people and lets them suck their bone in… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
But she still had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop one's breath for a moment by a look or gesture that… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
“You remember how homesick I used to get, and what long talks we used to have coming from school? We've someway always felt alike… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
“He placed this book in my grandmother's hands, looked at her entreatingly, and said, with an earnestness which I shall never forget, "Te-e-ach, te-e-ach… — Willa Cather Copy Share Image
The sincerity of feeling that is possible between a writer and a reader is one of the finest things I know. — Willa Cather Copy Share Image