Writing Quotes by John Gardner

Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination than only writing about what you know

— John Gardner

“[the writer] must copy, with his finite mind, the process of the infinite 'I AM.”

— John Gardner

“Not everyone is capable of writing junk fiction: It requires an authentic junk mind.”

— John Gardner

“one sign of a writer’s potential is his especially sharp ear—and eye—for language.”

— John Gardner

“The best way in the world for breaking up a writer's block is to write a lot.”

— John Gardner

“The people I've known who wanted to become writers, knowing what it meant, did become writers.”

— John Gardner

“A story is like a machine with numerous gears: it should contain no gear that doesn't turn something”

— John Gardner

“Good writers may “tell” about almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings.”

— John Gardner

Art Gropes. It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself,…

— John Gardner

Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a…

— John Gardner

“The writer sensitive to language finds his own metaphors, not simply because he has been taught to avoid clichés but because he…

— John Gardner

“It is for this reason that Aristotle recommends that the writer begin "in the middle of things" and fill in the exposition…

— John Gardner

“As a general rule, highly rational writers (like Nabokov) write most comfortably in the morning, and mainly intuitive writers write most comfortably…

— John Gardner

“...{N}othing is harder for the developing writer than overcoming his anxiety that he is fooling himself and cheating or embarrassing his family…

— John Gardner

If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say…

— John Gardner

“The very qualities that make one a writer in the first place contribute to the block: hypersensitivity, stubbornness, insatiability, and so on.…

— John Gardner

“One has to be just a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most…

— john gardner

“As in the universe every atom has an effect, however miniscule, on every other atom, so that to pinch the fabric of…

— John Gardner

“The question one asks of the young writer who wants to know if he's got what it takes is this: "Is writing…

— John Gardner

“Theoretically there's no reason one should get [writer's block], if one understands that writing, after all, is only writing, neither something one…

— John Gardner

“all writers, given adequate technique—technique that communicates—can stir our interest in their special subject matter, since at heart all fiction treats, directly…

— John Gardner

“One cannot judge in advance whether or not the idea of the story is worthwhile because until one has finished writing the…

— John Gardner

A common and usually unfortunate answer is “Write about what you know.” Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination, nothing is…

— John Gardner

“Because his art is such a difficult one, the writer is not likely to advance in the world as visibly as do…

— john gardner

“Good writers may “tell” about almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings. One may tell the reader that the character went…

— John Gardner

“There seems little or no hope for the adult writer who produces sentences like these: "Her cheeks were thick and smooth and…

— John Gardner

“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

“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

“Fiction, like sculpture or painting, begins with a rough sketch. One gets down the characters and their behavior any way one can,…

— john gardner

“Daemonic compulsiveness can kill as easily as it can save. The true novelist must be at once driven and indifferent. Van Gogh…

— John Gardner

“Part of the writer's problem may be thee wrong kind of appreciation: hen he does work he knows to be less than…

— John Gardner

“The best way a writer can find to keep himself going is to live off his (or her) spouse. The trouble is…

— John Gardner

“It is the importance of this quality of generosity in fiction that requires a measure of childishness in the writer. People who…

— John Gardner

“The age old idea of human dignity comes to apply even to the indigent, even to the slaves, even to immigrants, now…

— John Gardner

“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

“I think there really is no other way to write a long, serious novel. You work, shelve it for a while, work,…

— John Gardner

“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

“A scene will not be vivid if the writer gives too few details to stir and guide the reader's imagination; neither will…

— John Gardner

“The shoddy writer wants only publication. He fails to recognize that almost anyone willing to devote between twelve and fourteen hours a…

— John Gardner

“A good writer is likely to know and use, or find out and use, the words for common architectural features, like "lintel,"…

— John Gardner