Best American Writer Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society

“Leadership is not always an open or closed lid but the continuous action of leading. It is not a Win, Lose; Winner Takes All; but a Win, Win if you never stop learning to lead. A leader that falls short of the mark and uses the wisdom of their past history of pitfalls and blunders can develop into a more powerful leader than before. This successful leadership style can be proven and altered over time, therefore; nothing is instant gratification. It takes time, hard work, planning, and prayer to become a great leader and maintain leadership." – Terrance Robinson, Artist, Author, and Educator”

Poetry Leadership Adversity American Writer Mvsu Best Leadership Quotes

Author:Terrance Robinson, Artist, Author, and Educator

“There was no audience for my books. The Indians didn't regard me as an Indian and North Americans couldn't conceive of me of a North American writer, not being white and brought up on wheat germ. My fiction got lost.”

Book Lost White Fiction Audience Regard Indian Wheat Germs American Writer

Author:Bharati Mukherjee

“I like terrific writing, but I also like a terrific story. My favorite books have both, and they're by contemporary, commercial American writers.”

Writing Book Stories My Favorite Contemporary Terrific Favorite Book American Writer

Author:Lisa Scottoline

“I think I'm an American writer writing about Latin America, and I'm a Latin American writer who happens to write in English.”

Thinking Writing Happens America Latin Latin America American Writer Latin American

Author:Daniel Alarcon

“It is in this matter that I fall foul of so many American writers on writing; they seem to think that writing is a confidence game by means of which the author cajoles a restless, dull-witted, shallow audience into hearing his point of view. Such an attitude is base, and can only beget base prose.”

Thinking Writing Mean Matter Seems Fall Games Views Attitude Audience Hearing Point Of View Dull Prose Shallow Restless Foul Begets Writing By Writers American Writer

Author:Robertson Davies

“Gore Vidal, the American writer, once described the American economic system as 'free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich'. Macroeconomic policy on the global scale is a bit like that. It is Keynesianism for the rich countries and monetarism for the poor.”

Country Bits Poor Rich Economic Policy Scales Socialism Enterprise Gore Economic Systems Free Enterprise American Writer Rich Countries Macroeconomics Keynesianism

Book:Bad Samaritans: rich nations, poor policies, and the threat to the developing world

Source: Bad Samaritans: rich nations, poor policies, and the threat to the developing world

“In one particular chapter in Ulysses, James Joyce imitates every major writing style that's been used by English and American writers over the last 700 years - starting with Beowulf and Chaucer and working his way up through the Renaissance, the Victorian era and on into the 20th century.”

“Henry David Thoreau, who never earned much of a living or sustained a relationship with any woman that wasn't brotherly -- who lived mostly under his parents' roof . . . who advocated one day's work and six days "off" as the weekly round and was considered a bit of a fool in his hometown . . . is probably the American writer who tells us best how to live comfortably with our most constant companion, ourselves.”

Bits Parent Fool One Day Six Constant Rounds Companion Roof Hometown Days Off Brotherly American Writer David Thoreau

Author:Edward Hoagland

“When success happens to an English writer, he acquires a new typewriter. When success happens to an American writer, he acquires a new life.”

Happens Acquire New Life Typewriters American Writer

Author:Martin Amis

“almost all American writers tend to overwrite, to tell too much. I get the disillusioned feeling that novels, today, are sold by the pound, like groceries. It actually takes a great deal more discipline to be able to leave out rather than to throw in everything. This means that you have to say in one sentence precisely what you mean, instead of saying sort of what you kind of mean in hundreds of sentences and hoping the sum total will add up.”

Kind Mean Feelings Today Able Deals Novel Too Much Discipline Add Sentences Pounds Groceries Disillusioned One Sentence American Writer

Author:Rona Jaffe

“I've had the good fortune to read a lot of great American writers in translation, and my absolute beloved, for me one of the greatest writers ever, is Mark Twain. Yes, yes, yes. And Whitman, from whom the whole of 20th-century poetry sprung up. Whitman was the origin of things, someone with a completely different outlook. But I think that he's the father of the new wave in the world's poetry which to this very day is hitting the shore.”

“To an American writer, I should think it must be a flattering distinction to escape the admiration of the newspapers.”

Thinking Should United States Newspapers Distinction Admiration Flattering American Writer

Book:Domestic Manners of the Americans

Source: Domestic Manners of the Americans

“The most underrated of all contemporary American writers of fiction.”

Fiction Contemporary Underrated American Writer

Book:99 Fables

Source: 99 Fables

“American writers, at least those of us who are fortunate enough to support ourselves in the field, are by and large a lucky lot.”

Enough Support Fields Lucky Fortunate American Writer

Author:Bryan Burrough

“I do feel fortunate to have some knowledge of the great Latin American writers, including some that are probably not that well known in English. Im thinking of Jose Maria Arguedas, whom I read when I was living in Lima, and who really impacted the way I viewed my country.”

Thinking Way Feels Wells Country Known Including Fortunate Latin Well Known Latin America American Writer Latin American

Author:Daniel Alarcon

“As a Vietnamese refugee who became an American writer, I can tell you that you matter, that your sadness matters, the story of how you survived and triumphed matters. For every story that belongs to you, in time, belongs to America.”

I Can Matter Stories America Sadness Survived Refugee Vietnamese American Writer Vietnamese Refugees

Book:East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres

Source: East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres

“Salter is a writer who particularly rewards those for whom reading is an intense pleasure. He is among the very few North American writers all of whose work I want to read, whose as-yet-unpublished books I wait for impatiently.”

Want Book Reading Waiting Pleasure Rewards Intense American Writer

Author:Susan Sontag

“I want people to read good work. If I see someone reading a book by Lorrie Moore or Jennifer Egan, I'm psyched. If I see them reading X Latin American Writer Who Sucks, I'm not psyched. But in terms of news, I do think that's important.”

People Ifs Thinking Want Important Book Reading Term News Latin Good Work Latin America Jennifer American Writer Latin American

Author:Daniel Alarcon

“Every time I make an American film I just trust the American director and American writer. Myself, I would never make this kind of film. For me, those kinds of films are ridiculous. They don't make sense.”

Kind Film Directors Ridiculous Make Sense American Writer American Film

Author:Jackie Chan

“'Freeing' a literary work into the public domain is less a public benefit than a transfer of wealth from the families of American writers to the executives and stockholders of various businesses who will continue to profit from, for example, 'The Garden Party,' while the descendants of Katherine Mansfield will not.”

Wealth Party Example Benefits Garden Profit Various Executives Domain Transfers Descendants American Writer Literary Works Public Domain

Author:Mark Helprin

“Oh, I love labels, as long as they are numerous. I'm an American writer. I'm a Nigerian writer. I'm a Nigerian American writer. I'm an African writer. I'm a Yoruba writer. I'm an African American writer. I'm a writer who's been strongly influenced by European precedents. I'm a writer who feels very close to literary practice in India - which I go to quite often - and to writers over there.”

Feels Long Practice India African American Labels Precedent American Writer

Author:Teju Cole

“I'm Mexican-American, but for a long time I was pushed out of any references to Mexican-American writers. It was easier to come out as a gay man than it was to come out as a Mexican-American.”

Men Long Easier Gay Long Time Mexican Gay Men American Writer Mexican American

Author:John Rechy

“During World War II, Joseph Stalin was once asked by an American writer, according to Professor Dean Russell, how he could justify conscripting all the property of all the people for use by the government to fight the war. Stalin answered by asking why they considered it more immoral and illogical to conscript lifeless property than to conscript life itself, as was being done in the United States and all other capitalistic countries. His American challenger had no answer, because there was no answer.”

“Some American writers who have known each other for years have never met in the daytime or when both were sober.”

Writing Years Known Mets Sober Daytime American Writer

Author:James Thurber

“There are dozens of great American writers who write about the family.”

Writing Dozen Great American American Writer

Author:William Nicholson

“The majority of American writers today have chosen passive non-resistance to things as they are, producing sloughs of poetry about their personal angst and anomie, cascades of short stories and rivers of novels obsessed with the nuances of domestic relationships - suburban hanky-panky - chic boutique shopping mall literary soap opera. When they do speak out on matters of controversy they attack not the evils of our time but fellow writers who may insist on complaining.”

Source: One Life at a Time, Please

“I have a well-balanced show. It's 50/50 on men/women, and also African-American/white writers, it's the same thing. I have four African-American writers, and four non-African-American writers.”

Men Wells Shows White Four African American Balanced Men Women American Writer

Author:Wanda Sykes

“It's the tradition of American writers getting away in order to see the country - to get a better view.”

Country Order Views Tradition Get Away American Writer

Author:Laurie Anderson

“The American writer is a very pampered figure - by foundations, by fellowships, by publishing advances. Even though I am not American, I have been pampered enough myself to know how it can make your life too frictionless.”

Knows Has Beens Enough Know How Figures Foundation Publishing Fellowship American Writer Pampered

Author:Pankaj Mishra

“You know what needs to be done when you're a writer. You know what the job is, particularly if you're an African American writer, or if you deal with people, or if your subjects are poor people or people who need voice. So you don't really need to know whether or not you are doing the right thing. What you have to be wary of if you're doing the right thing to the right level that will surpass your own life. I'm hoping that my work will surpass my own life.”

People Ifs Knows Needs Done Jobs Voice My Own Poor Levels Deals Subjects African American Right Thing Poor People My Own Life Doing The Right Thing American Writer

Author:James McBride

“I'm one of the few Black writers, or African American writers, who managed to work my way through the system so that it has allowed me to speak in a kind of free way. But most African American writers don't have that. They don't have that opportunity, they don't have that.”

Way Kind Opportunity Speak Black My Way African American American Writer

Author:James McBride

“Class is the most difficult subject for American writers to deal with as it is the most difficult for the English to avoid.”

Difficult Deals Class Subjects American Writer Difficult Subjects

Book:A view from the diners club: essays 1987-1991

Source: A view from the diners club: essays 1987-1991

“Our everyday language has become encumbered, Germanic, artificial, bureaucratic, inorganic. It may not be exaggerated to say that by now American writers face but two alternatives: write English, or write gobbledygook.”

Writing May Two Faces Language Everyday Alternatives Artificial Exaggerated American Writer

Author:John Lukacs

“The English tourist in American literature wants above all things something different from what he has at home. For this reason the one American writer whom the English whole-heartedly admire is Walt Whitman. There, you will hear them say, is the real American undisguised. In the whole of English literature there is no figure which resembles his - among all our poetry none in the least comparable to Leaves of Grass”

Want Different Real Reason Whole Home Literature Figures All Things Admire Grass Tourists Walt Leaves Of Grass American Literature English Literature American Writer

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)

“Maybe just as many women writers as male writers could be billed as the next great American writer by their publisher. Maybe book criticism sections could review an equal amount of female and male writers. Maybe Oprah could start putting some books by women authors in her book club, since most of her audience is women.”

Book Next Audience Amount Equal Female Criticism Males Clubs Reviews Sections Publishers Great American American Writer Book Club Females And Males

Author:Jami Attenberg

“It was always a false assumption that white American writers cannot write novels about race unless they're approaching it from a very oblique angle.”

Writing White Race Novel Assumption Angle American Writer False Assumptions

Author:Jess Row

“If you just sit there, and you're a writer, you're bound to write crap. A lot of American writing is crap. And a lot of American writers are professionals.”

Ifs Writing Bounds Crap American Writer

Author:Jamaica Kincaid

“When you translate the American writers who are best with dialogue into German - someone like Elmore Leonard, or Tom Wolfe, who's also quite good with dialogue. It's very hard to translate them well.”

Wells Hard Dialogue Toms Translate American Writer

Author:Daniel Kehlmann

“I always read the Latin American writers. I love so many of them: Gabriel García Márquez, José Donoso, Alejo Carpentier, Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector. I also love a lot of American experimental writers and surrealist European writers. But perhaps The Persian Book of Kings was the greatest influence - I encourage people to look at it. There is such a wealth of incredible stories.”

People Looks Book Stories Wealth Influence Kings Incredibles Latin Latin America Persian Gabriel American Writer Borges Latin American Surrealist

Author:Porochista Khakpour

“My friend, Dennis Mathis, was reading Eastern European and Japanese experimental writers, and I brought the Latin American writers to his attention, so we exchanged books and bounced off one another.”

Book Reading Attention My Friends Latin Eastern Latin America American Writer Latin American

Author:Sandra Cisneros

“We had two African American writers [Eric Monte and Michael Evans] on the show ['Good Times'] that knew Cabrini Green inside and out, and that's why we set it there.”

Two Shows Green African American Good Times Eric American Writer

Author:Norman Lear

“Even [Ernst] Hemingway, perhaps the most intentionally non-political of American writers, became passionately partisan during the Spanish Civil War.”

War Political Civil War Partisans American Writer Spanish Civil War Non Political

Author:Adam Hochschild

“Stephen [King], who wrote the script himself, was on the set [of The Stand], and I was just so fortunate to get to know him. What a wonderful man. He may go down in history as the greatest American writer, pound for pound.”

Knows Men May Wonderful Kings Scripts Fortunate Pounds American Writer Wonderful Man

Author:Rob Lowe

“I think that James Baldwin is, for sure, one of the most important American writer/thinkers of his time... not just African-American. He singled-handily revolutionized the political, artistic and historical discourses about America. He created his particular and original language.”

Thinking Important America Political Language Particular Originals Historical Artistic African American Thinker Discourse American Writer

Author:Raoul Peck

“James Baldwin is one of the greatest, North American writers of the second half of the Twentieth Century. A prolific writer and a brilliant social critic, he foreshadowed the destructive trends happening now in the whole Western world and beyond, while always maintaining a sense of humanistic hope and dignity. He explored palpable, yet unspoken, intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies and the inevitable, if unnameable, tensions with personal identity, assumptions, uncertainties, yearning, and questing.”

“Few [books] get translated and the ones that do have trouble making it into the mainstream. It's more likely that Americans will discover another culture through an American writer rather read a writer from that culture.”

Book Culture Trouble Mainstream American Writer Trouble Making

Author:Laila Lalami

“African American writers and artists, by the very nature of what they do, will actually enhance or bring together people in a way that might be very, very healthy.”

People Way Might Together Artist Healthy African American American Writer

Author:Jerry Pinkney

“Incidentally, I am intrigued by how many European and Latin American writers expressed their political views in the columns they routinely wrote or write in the popular press, like Saramago, Vargas Llosa, and Eco. This strikes me as one way of avoiding opinionated fiction, and allowing your imagination a broader latitude. Similarly, fiction writers from places like India and Pakistan are commonly expected to provide primers to their country's histories and present-day conflicts. But we haven't had that tradition in Anglo-America.”

“Writers like Twain, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, Carolyn Chute, Alice Walker, so many others that I read coming up as a writer, that helped form my ideas of what it means to be American - and an American writer. I'm always in conversation with them.”

Mean American Writer

Author:Micah Perks

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American Writer Quotes