The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
That's a very good way to learn the craft of writing - from reading. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
The writer doesn't need economic freedom. All he needs is a pencil and some paper. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything really good. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.” — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
If I had not existed, someone else would have written me, Hemingway, Dostoevski, all of us. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
What a writer's obituary should read - he wrote the books, then he died. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
The writer in America isn't part of the culture of this country. He's like a fine dog. People like him around, but… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
A hack writer who would have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tried out a few of the old proven 'sure-fire'… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
It's the most satisfying occupation man has discovered yet, because you never can quite do it as well as you want to,… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one... If a writer… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
Nothing can injure a man's writing if he's a first-rate writer. If a man is not a first-rate writer, there's not anything… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
I don't think anybody can teach anybody anything. I think that you learn it, but the young writer that is as I… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“[A writer] must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever,… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
He [the writer] must, teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
I think that-that anyone, the painter, the musician, the writer works in a-a kind of an-an insane fury. He's demon-driven. He can… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“Let me repeat. I have not read all the work of this present generation of writing. I have not had time yet.… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“He is the greatest artist the South has produced.… Indeed, through his many novels and short stories, Faulkner fights out the moral… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
My ideal job? Landlord of a bordello! The company's good and the mornings are quiet, which is the best time to write. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
It is the writer's privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“If you write something that you love beyond all reason, it is wrong and you should strike it out.” — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
I only write when I feel the inspiration. Fortunately, inspiration strikes at 10:00 o'clock every day. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“Writing is one-third imagination, one-third experience, and one third observation.” — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate: The 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
If I had not existed, someone else would have written me, Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, all of us. — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
The writer's only responsibility is to his art...If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he… — William Faulkner Copy Share Image
“The river itself is not a hundred yards across, and pa and Vernon and Vardaman and Dewey Dell are the only things in sight… — William Faulkner Copy Share
The quality an artist must have is objectivity in judging his work, plus the honesty and courage not to kid himself about it. — William Faulkner Copy Share
“Luster returned, wearing a stiff new straw hat with a colored band and carrying a cloth cap. The hat seemed to isolate Luster's skull,… — William Faulkner Copy Share
It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged… — William Faulkner Copy Share
“What matters is at the end of life, when you're about to pass into oblivion, that you've at least scratched 'Kilroy was here,' on… — William Faulkner Copy Share
I've got to feel the pencil and see the words at the end of the pencil, — William Faulkner Copy Share
And sure enough, even waiting will end...if you can just wait long enough. — William Faulkner Copy Share
“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice,… — William Faulkner Copy Share
Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the… — William Faulkner Copy Share
To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi. — William Faulkner Copy Share
“What modren ideas?” pap said. “I didn’t know there was but one idea about work—until it is done, it ain’t done, and when it… — William Faulkner Copy Share
“It was only as he put his hand on the door that he became aware of complete silence beyond it, a silence which he… — William Faulkner Copy Share
“She has no mother because fatherblood hates with love and pride, but motherblood with hate loves and cohabits.” — William Faulkner Copy Share
“Byron listened quietly, thinking to himself how people everywhere are about the same, but that it did seem that in a small town, where… — William Faulkner Copy Share
“It was too late. Maybe yesterday, while I was still a child, but not now. I knew too much, had seen too much, I… — William Faulkner Copy Share
![“[A writer] must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and…” quote by William Faulkner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/806/william-faulkner-306_compassion_a-writer-must-teach-himself-that-the-bas_1958386.jpg)
![“He [the writer] must, teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed…” quote by William Faulkner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b32/william-faulkner-306_all-things_he-the-writer-must-teach-himself-that-th_1547279.jpg)
![“He is the greatest artist the South has produced.… Indeed, through his many novels and short stories, Faulkner fights out the moral problem which was repressed after the nineteenth century [yet] for all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must…” quote by William Faulkner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2cf/william-faulkner-306_art_he-is-the-greatest-artist-the-south-has_2640538.jpg)
