Firsts Quotes

20399 Firsts quotes by 9251 unique authors

When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one… — Ernest Hemingway
As for the blood and the head business, the blood and the head work together and what is not first in the blood can sometimes… — Flannery O'Connor
Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the first draft to the point… — Richard North Patterson
If you caricature friends in your first novel they will be upset, but if you don't they will feel betrayed. — Mordecai Richler
The first rule for a good style is to have something to say; in fact, this in itself is almost enough. — Arthur Schopenhauer
I don't write easily or rapidly. My first draft usually has only a few elements worth keeping. I have to find what those are and… — Susan Sontag
Editors seek out the first novels with the seductiveness of Don Juans; the pleasure of discovery is one of the obvious reasons. — William Targ
To imagine yourself inside another person...is what a story writer does in every piece of work; it is his first step, and his last too,… — Eudora Welty
I have always felt that the first duty of a writer was to ascend - to make flights, carrying others along if you can manage… — Elwyn Brooks White
I chart a little first-list of names, rough synopsis of chapters, and so on. But one daren't overplan; so many things are generated by the… — Anthony Burgess
The first thing a writer has to do is find another source of income. Then, after you have begged, borrowed, stolen or saved up the… — Ellen Gilchrist
I write because something inner and unconscious forces me to. That is the first compulsion. The second is one of ethical and moral duty. I… — David Guterson
Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember… — William Zinsser
Australian SF book publishing has undergone a boom recently, and sometimes it's easier for new writers to sell a book to a local publisher first,… — Greg Egan
On opening sentences: "If in the first chapter a hurricane is going to blow down an oak tree which falls through the kitchen roof, there's… — Unknown Author
Don't get discouraged because there's a lot of mechanical work to writing. I rewrote the first part of Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. — Ernest Hemingway
Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. wThis is the first step towards becoming either estimable… — William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
First thought is best in Art, second in other matters. — William Blake
I write the big scenes first, that is, the scenes that carry the meaning of the book, the emotional experience. — Joyce Cary
The first Chapter Law is, "Don't spend much time on it. You're going to have to rewrite it." — Tony Hillerman
I always write the end of everything first. I always write the last chapters of my books before I write the beginning....Then I go back… — Truman Capote
I do a lot of revising. Certain chapters six or seven times. Occasionally you can hit it right the first time. More often, you don't. — John Dos Passos
When you first start writing-and I think it's true for a lot of beginning writers-you're scared to death that if you don't get that sentence… — Toni Morrison
The longer I write, the more important I believe it is to write the first draft as fast as possible. In drafting, I push myself… — Donald Murray
In the camp, this meant committing my verse-many thousands of lines-to memory. To help me with this I improvised decimal counting beads and, in transit… — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Who Wrote These Firsts Quotes

9,251 authors contributed a total of 20,399 Firsts Quotes, led by these top contributors: