if you don't keep and guard and mature your force, and above all, have time and quiet to perfect your work, you… — Sarah Orne Jewett Copy Share Image
“This creates potential confusion, because the French used Annam to indicate all of Vietnam as well as its central region alone. If… — Mark W. McLeod Copy Share Image
“But for the rest of us, we should be regularly reassessing why we write. When we know what we’re going for (human… — Tasha Golden Copy Share Image
“A writer is an explorer. She knows she wants to get somewhere, but she doesn’t know if the somewhere even exists yet.… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Writing prejudicial, off-putting reviews is a precise exercise in applied black magic. The reviewer can draw free-floating disagreeable associations to a book… — William S. Burroughs Copy Share Image
“I would love to say that I wrote (Good Will Hunting). Here is the truth. In my obit it will say that… — William Goldman Copy Share Image
I don't write listening to music, and in a way it seems silly that any writer should have to explain why not,… — Rachel Kushner Copy Share Image
“From Tudor to eighteenth-century England, there are many instances of women writers with no place or room of their own. The life-story… — Hermione Lee Copy Share Image
“It's tempting to start each sentence with an apology or disclaimer. To preface everything with "In my life I've found" so that… — Jenny Lawson Copy Share Image
When I first started writing, I was in advertising at the time, I was doing most of my writing on weekends. I… — Clive Cussler Copy Share Image
The storytelling mind is allergic to uncertainty, randomness, and coincidence. It is addicted to meaning. If the storytelling mind cannot find meaningful… — Jonathan Gottschall Copy Share Image
The most common thing I find is very brilliant, acute, young people who want to become writers but they are not writing.… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record. Originally I was not writing songs for… — Smokey Robinson Copy Share Image
“I want characters to do bad things and get away with their misdeeds. I want characters to think ugly thoughts and make… — Roxane Gay Copy Share Image
“Traditional ways to deal with information--reading, listening, writing, talking--are painfully slow in comparison to "viewing the big picture." Those who survive information… — Kathryn Alesandrini Copy Share Image
It's intuitive in terms of when I read a piece of material or I hear about a project. I'm a writer, so… — Matt Damon Copy Share Image
“The growing sensitivity of people to any sort of open and frank discussion of important issues is no service to civilisation, let… — Arthur Miller Copy Share Image
“In the beginning, there’s a blank mind. Then that mind gets an idea in it, and the trouble begins, because the mind… — George Saunders Copy Share Image
I would go into periods of depression in my life, and I would feel so alone. I felt that there was no… — Brie Larson Copy Share Image
I have never learned to read or write music so I am not a virtuoso musician like the others you mentioned. I… — Ken Hensley Copy Share Image
Definitely, there is a sense in my writing that people now know me in a personal way. And to an extent, that's… — Roxane Gay Copy Share Image
“The lady who works in the grocery store at the corner of my block is called Denise, and she's one of America's… — Dave Gibbons Copy Share Image
I am a very emotional person. I basically think and feel in emotion, so writing is much easier for me than communicating… — Kelly Oxford Copy Share Image
I had a checklist in my mind of the things that make a biography practical. Is the source material centralized? Is it… — Terry Teachout Copy Share Image
“In making art you need to give yourself room to respond authentically, both to your subject matter and to your materials. Art… — David Bayles Copy Share Image
Structure that really pays off is all based on emotion. I don't write down an elaborate plan. It's really done by feel.… — Graham Swift Copy Share Image
“The great writers, Conrad, Maugham and Melville, spent only a few years in the South Seas, but their memory of those waters… — James A. Michener Copy Share Image
I think those walks to the studio were the most enjoyable times for me, because I could get lost in my head… — Sarah Blasko Copy Share Image
There are terrific TV shows now. This is a golden age for TV humor, I think. There's an actual market there. Of… — Dave Barry Copy Share Image
It is a fairly serious thing that you're doing if you're writing about people who are still alive and who still have… — Peter Morgan Copy Share Image
Because, as we know, almost anything can be read into any book if you are determined enough. This will be especially impressed… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
I want to do everything, so when I started I wanted to be an actress, and I've always written funny things. I… — Ellie Taylor Copy Share Image
I treat my writing like a day job, like my main job, even if for many years I was doing other jobs… — Miguel Syjuco Copy Share Image
“For it is now to us itself ancient; and yet its maker was telling of things already old and weighted with regret,… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
You can use your means in a good and bad way. In German-speaking art, we had such a bad experience with the… — Michael Haneke Copy Share Image
The very dull truth is that writing love scenes is the same as writing other scenes - your job is to be… — Madeline Miller Copy Share Image
Writers, like most human beings, are adaptable creatures. They can learn to accept subordination without growing fond of it. No writer can… — Rod Serling Copy Share Image
“[Referring to passage by Alice Munro] Finally, the passage contradicts a form of bad advice often given young writers -- namely, that… — Francine Prose Copy Share Image
Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet. From those sounds which we hear on small or on… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A guitar for me is pretty much strictly in the context of writing songs for my band, coming up with ideas with… — Scott Ian Copy Share Image
![“I would love to say that I wrote (Good Will Hunting). Here is the truth. In my obit it will say that I wrote it. People don't want to think those two cute guys wrote it. What happened was, they had the script. It was their script. They gave it to Rob [Reiner] to read, and there was a great deal of…” quote by William Goldman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/27c/william-goldman-1095_cute-guy_i-would-love-to-say-that-i-wrote-good-wi_2360784.png)
![“[Referring to passage by Alice Munro] Finally, the passage contradicts a form of bad advice often given young writers -- namely, that the job of the author is to show, not tell. Needless to say, many great novelists combine "dramatic" showing with long sections of the flat-out authorial narration…” quote by Francine Prose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fb/francine-prose-9354_bad-advice_referring-to-passage-by-alice-munro-fina_1081030.jpg)
