Writing Quotes · Page 244

Writers who take on polarising issues are apt to step on a few toes.

— Lionel Shriver

The first writing of the human being was drawing, not writing.

— Marjane Satrapi

My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.

— Alain de Botton

“Bless you. Be careful. Anyone intending to meddle with words needs such blessing, such warning.”

— Margaret Atwood

I'm still writing songs but leaving them a lot more open and not trying to control every nuance of it.

— Luke Temple

I've been very lucky. I've written for most of my idols and the contemporaries.

— Alan Zweibel

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.

— Franz Kafka

“If you write what you love, that is success, is it not?”

— Leslie Soule

I think the trick of writing a good picture book manuscript is to leave that space for illustration. An illustrated novel can…

— Mac Barnett

I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write story.

— Eric Brown

I wanted to work on a cable show and with a writer/director because that's a much more fulfilling and freeing experience, as…

— Tom Ellis

When I write on 'SNL,' I've found I'm most productive while collaborating and joking with friends and not being firmly attached to…

— Cecily Strong

My books are written from personal experience, from memories, and from stories that come to me from all places.

— Isabel Allende

The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way. You get a chance to know who…

— Natalie Goldberg

“What is writing? It’s me, the author, taking the state inside my mind and, via the gift of language, grafting it onto…

— Antonio Garcia Martinez

“The caress of each word becoming one with the page. Twisting beneath the touch of the pen, forming a trail of permanent…

— N'Zuri Za Austin

“I ain't a lover, but I want to love all your crazy imperfections, I ain't a diver, but I want to dive…

— Hareem Ch

I never went to school for writing, never took a writing class, but when you're in a room with David Simon and…

— George Pelecanos

If you read the first page of one of my novels, I can guarantee that you will read the last one. This…

— Jodi Picoult

You come by your style by learning what to leave out. At first you tend to overwrite—embellishment instead of insight. You either…

— Billy Collins

Writers like Twain, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, Carolyn Chute, Alice Walker, so many others that I read…

— Micah Perks

The very paradigm of revolution, of right versus wrong, good versus bad, is a relic with no bearing on the present. Yet…

— Jerry Saltz

“Writing is a pitched battle with the elusive self, a contest that resultant celebratory jubilee demonstrates the writer’s innate capacity to meld…

— Kilroy J. Oldster

I've never written a book with an outline or a predetermined theme. It's only in retrospect that themes or subjects become identifiable.…

— Susan Choi

Looking straight at the world is part of your duty as a writer.

— Pat Barker

When I started out, nobody gave me scripts, so I had to write.

— Ang Lee

I know that I was able to find my way out of most of my feelings by writing.

— Jane Alison

Besides acting, writing has been my passion for a long time.

— Antara Mali

“A writer learns that easy to read is hard to write ...”

— CJ Heck

In the end, you have to just sit down, shut up, and write.

— Natalie Goldberg

“children who are blessed with happy childhoods almost never grow up to become famous writers.”

— Joan Schenkar

Being a writer-director can sometimes make you incredibly blinkered.

— Anthony Minghella

“If there's a better book than this, I haven't written it.”

— Stephen Colbert

Nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.

— John Irving

“How can I demonstrate [...] that I have glimpsed somebody's future recollection?”

— Vladimir Nabokov

I like to co-author books to learn from those I write with.

— Dave Ulrich

Today, I'm very careful not to mention very specific locations when I write or give captions.

— Galen Rowell

“A story never stands on its own, but exists in the context of the storyteller.”

— Joseph Fink

I often felt myself to be an outsider, which is great training for all writers.

— Karen Russell

People don't ever seem to realize that doing what's right, writes no guarantee against misfortune.

— William McFee