Chipping away Quote by Harriet Doerr

“I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter - chipping away at the raw material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it.”

Harriet Doerr

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.2 out of 5 (6 ratings)

Chipping away Compare Cutters Found Happy Work Happy Working Hours Materials Phrases Raw material Raw materials Sentences Stones Writing

More by Harriet Doerr

“Sara understood this passion that beset geologists. Their minds were heavy with theories shaped by fire and water, their pockets weighted with residual bits…

Harriet Doerr

Image

I have everything I need. A square of sky, a piece of stone, a page, a pen, and memory raining down on me in…

Harriet Doerr

Image

“Writing derives from an accumulation of experience. It's as if you collect facts and observations over time, like a stone to stand on. From…

Harriet Doerr

Image

During your life, everything you do and everyone you meet rubs off in some way. Some bit of everything you experience stays with everyone…

Harriet Doerr

Image

memories are like corks left out of bottles. They swell. They no longer fit.

Harriet Doerr

Image

You cannot just waste time. Otherwise you'll die to regret it.

Harriet Doerr

Image

“Paco had a way with plants.....Sara believed that whenever he walked under a tree it grew a new branch to shade him.”

Harriet Doerr

Image

“It is something they will see everywhere - a disregard for danger, a companionship with death. By the end of a year they will…

Harriet Doerr

Image

“We have come to live among specters, Sara tells herself. They are not people, but silhouettes sketched on a backdrop to deceive us into…

Harriet Doerr

Image

The minute he spoke Spanish, I said, "I'm home."

Harriet Doerr

Image

“They have not considered that memories are like corks left out of bottles. They swell. They no longer fit.”

Harriet Doerr

Image

I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right phrase, the right word. I compare…

Harriet Doerr

Image

Explore all 14 Harriet Doerr quotes

More Chipping away quotes

Whether it's people walking off 'The View' when Bill O'Reilly makes a statement about radical Islam or Juan Williams being fired for expressing his…

Eric Cantor

Image

Who can I marry? Where can I live? What kind of career can I achieve? These are just some of the stories breaking with…

Jeff Britting

Image

Our biggest challenges for the ocean and for the planet are problems of perception. People need to understand that species extinctions, habitat destruction, ocean…

Edith Widder

Image

All men are sculptors, constantly chipping away the unwanted parts of their lives, trying to create their idea of a masterpiece.

Eddie Murphy

Image

People who are great thinkers, in science or in art, people who are great performers, have to have that kind of capacity. Without that…

Antonio Damasio

Image

Look, you do everything in stages, right? I don't think everything happens at once. There are so many layers we are constantly chipping away…

Eve Ensler

Image

Oh, God. God, isn't that perfect? He's Dad. He's Dad with a layer of nerd. Solid, steady, chipping away so patiently, you don't even…

Nora Roberts

Image

I think of writing as a sculptural medium. You are not building things. You are removing things, chipping away at language to reveal a…

Will Self

Image

There's a certain pressure you put on yourself to use the comics page to full advantage that can focus your mind to a pinpoint,…

James Vance

Image

Wild rivers are earth's renegades, defying gravity, dancing to their own tunes, resisting the authority of humans, always chipping away, and eventually always winning.

Richard Bangs