Best bits & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Novel-writing is a bit like deception. You lie as little as you possibly can. That's the way I do it, anyway.”

Way Writing Littles Lying Bits Novel Deception Novel Writing

“I think there have been some periods when the writing almost became a bit of a burden.”

Thinking Writing Has Beens Bits Periods Burden

“When I'm writing, which is 8-9 months out of the year, I'm in a concerted writing pace, where I work 5 days a week for at least a few hours a day, maybe a little bit more. But I won't work for more than 2 hours at a time. I'll work for a couple hours and take a break.”

Writing Years Littles Bits Hours Break Week Months Couple Little Bit Pace

Author:Amy Ray

“Seventy percent of what I write, I throw out. I can write very easily, but writing original things is the hard bit.”

Writing I Can Hard Bits Percent Originals Seventies

Author:Mike Rutherford

“No I don't really write thinking about specific actors because it can get in the way a little bit.”

Thinking Way Writing Littles Actors Bits Little Bit

Author:Lorene Scafaria

“Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong. It is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously.”

Ifs Needs Writing Sometimes Grows Bits Wonder Our Lives Heard Wake Up Make Sense Visible Desperate Endeavor

Book:Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“I have myself always been terrified of plagiarism - of being accused of it, that is. Every writer is a thief, though some of us are more clever than others at disguising our robberies. The reason writers are such slow readers is that we are ceaselessly searching for things we can steal and then pass off as our own: a natty bit of syntax, a seamless transition, a metaphor that jumps to its target like an arrow shot from an aluminum crossbow.”

Writing Reason Bits Reader Shots Metaphor Clever Stealing Target Transition Thieves Terrified Accused Arrows Plagiarism Robbery Syntax Seamless Aluminum Being Accused Crossbows

Author:Joseph Epstein

“Writing is not something you can do or you can't. It's not even something that 'other people do' or 'for smart people only' or even 'for people who finished school and went to University'. Nonsense. Anyone can do it. But no-one can do it straight off the bat. Like plastering, brain surgery or assembling truck engines, you have to do a bit of training - get your hands dirty - and make some mistakes.”

People Writing Hands School Bits Can Do Mistake Brain Smart Training University Finished Dirty Nonsense Engines Bats Surgery Truck Smart People Assembling Brain Surgery Finished School

Author:Jasper Fforde

“At the risk, then, of being shunned by some of my gloomier peers, I venture to tell you that writers work like demons, suffer greatly, and are also happy, in unmistakable ways, some of the time. If we had no knowledge of happiness, our novels wouldn't sufficiently resemble real life. Some of us are even made a little bit happy, on occasion, by the writing process itself. I mean, really, if there wasn't some sort of enjoyment to be derived, would any of us keep doing it?”

Ifs Way Writing Mean Littles Made Real Suffering Bits Process Novel Risk Little Bit Real Life Occasions Enjoyment Demon Peers Venture Writing Process

Author:Michael Cunningham

“I think by definition you need to have lived a little bit to write anything that's humanly true.”

Thinking Needs Writing Littles Bits Little Bit Definitions

Author:Richard K. Morgan

“I do have a little bit more confidence in - or at least familiarity with - my process. For example, when it feels like it's going badly or that I'm lost, I know I'll eventually find my way because I've been through it before. But writing itself is still hard.”

Knows Way Feels Writing Littles Stills Hard Lost Bits Process Example Little Bit My Way Familiarity

Author:Sara Zarr

“There is an argument for believing that the entire process of writing a piece of fiction is simply a thinly-controlled and highly-internalised nervous breakdown designed, with a bit of luck, to produce something worthwhile at the end.”

Writing Believe Ends Bits Process Fiction Pieces Produce Argument Luck Nervous Controlled Worthwhile Breakdown Nervous Breakdown

Book:Writing: A User Manual: A practical guide to planning, starting and finishing a novel

Source: Writing: A User Manual: A practical guide to planning, starting and finishing a novel

“Trying to write music that's sensitive to 400 years ago takes a bit of madness, as it's such a long stretch of time.”

Writing Trying Years Long Bits Years Ago Madness Sensitive

Author:Damon Albarn

“I never do any television without chocolate. That's my motto and I live by it. Quite often I write the scripts and I make sure there are chocolate scenes. Actually I'm a bit of a chocolate tart and will eat anything. It's amazing I'm so slim.”

Writing Bits Television Scene Scripts Live By Chocolate Motto Slim My Motto Tarts Funny Chocolate

Author:Dawn French

“Well, I'm a writer by nature, and I got a little bit - a little taste of a daily fast-paced writing job, writing career, and I loved it.”

Writing Wells Littles Jobs Bits Careers Taste Little Bit Fast Paced

Author:Victoria Gotti

“I like to write with a lot of emotion and a lot of power. Sometimes I overdo it; sometimes my prose is a little bit too purple, and I know that.”

Knows Writing Littles Sometimes Bits Emotion Little Bit Prose Purple

Author:Buzz Bissinger

“All I want is a modest place in Mr X's Good Reading, Miss Y's Good Writing, and that new edition of One Thousand Best Bits of Recent Prose.”

Want Writing Reading Bits Missing Thousand Prose Modest Good Writing Good Reading

Book:Ego 5: Again More of the Autobiography of James Agate

Source: Ego 5: Again More of the Autobiography of James Agate

“I keep social with everyone because I want to know what's going on at every level. At the same time, if I'm not alone a certain amount of time per day then I'll go nuts, because I can't write and I can't think. I can't deal with people all the time. I like being alone. I'm a bit of a cat lady in that way.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Way Want Writing I Can Certain Social Bits Levels Deals Amount Cat Nuts Not Alone Because I Can Like Being Alone Cat Lady

Author:Courtney Love

“I'd say that any character or setting can be given a bit of an otherworldly sheen and be the better for it. The one thing I insist on with my own writing is that I won't let magic solve my characters' real world problems. The solutions have to come from the characters themselves.”

World Writing Real Character Problem Given Bits My Own Magic One Thing Solutions Solve Setting Settings Real World World Problems

Author:Charles de Lint

“I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it's a bit like fucking - which is fun only for amateurs. Old whores don't do much giggling.”

Writing Kind Fun Bits Suspects Hateful

Author:Hunter S. Thompson

“When you give up a bit of work don't (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away. Put it in a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the re-writing of things begun and abandoned years earlier.”

Thinking Giving Writing Years May Bits Giving Up Abandoned Best Work Drawers

Author:C. S. Lewis

“My approach to 'Star Trek' was, 'I know science fiction, and I know screen writing.' That was very arrogant of me, but you really need to be a little bit arrogant to think that what you have to say is good enough to justify the expense of hundreds of thousands - now millions of dollars - to make an episode of the TV show.”

Thinking Knows Needs Writing Littles Enough Shows Stars Bits Fiction Millions Tvs Approach Little Bit Science Fiction Dollars Screens Justify Expenses Good Enough Arrogant Episodes Tv Shows

Author:David Gerrold

“Get scared. It will do you good. Smoke a bit, stare blankly at some ceilings, beat your head against some walls, refuse to see some people, paint and write. Get scared some more. Allow your little mind to do nothing but function. Stay inside, go out - I don't care what you'll do; but stay scared as hell. You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.”

“Keep your head down, avoid all the distractions of being a writer todayall the shifts in the business, all the drama, all the debating about where publishing is goingand write the best story that you can. It sounds a bit glib, but I think this is advice a lot of people are having trouble following right now. It is so hard to focus. But that is the single key to success.”

People Thinking Writing Hard Stories Today Bits Sound Focus Trouble Advice Keys Drama Right Now Following Distraction Publishing Key To Success

Author:Jeff Abbott

“Writing is a hard gig, and it's hard to convey a lot. That's why scripts tend to be a little bit overwritten.”

Writing Littles Hard Bits Little Bit Scripts Gigs

Author:Mel Gibson

“I got the acting bug back because I felt like all of a sudden maybe after all these years, maybe I might have something to offer again. I walked away from it after 'Signs' because I just felt I was a bit stale and it wasn't ringing my bells, so I focused on directing, writing and producing.”

Writing Years Might Felt Bits Acting Offers Focused Bells Bugs Stale

Author:Mel Gibson

“My father was a writer, so I grew up writing and reading and I was really encouraged by him. I had some sort of gift and when it came time to try to find a publisher I had a little bit of an "in" because I had his agent I could turn to, to at least read my initial offerings when I was about 20. But the only problem was that they were just awful, they were just terrible stories and my agent, who ended up being my agent, was very, very sweet about it, but it took about four years until I actually had something worth trying to sell.”

“Well, when I was a young writer the people we read were Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sartre, Camus, Celine, Malraux. And to begin with, I was a bit of a copycat writer and very derivative and tried to write a novel using their voices, really.... I keep it out of print.”

People Writing Wells Young Bits Voice Novel Print Derivatives Young Writers Copycats Celine

Author:Mordecai Richler

“There's that lovely thing for the first month or two of writing a new book: OK, I don't know what that character's going to do, but we'll find out later. After about three or four months you come to that bit where you've got to put some plot in before it's too late, and you have to go back and start inserting plot, and, ooh, I've left out the literature, OK, lets put some in.”

Knows Writing Firsts Two Book Character Three Literature Left Bits Four Months Late Lovely Too Late Plot Left Out New Books Lovely Things Before It's Too Late

Author:Terry Pratchett

“I don't tend to redraft, I will try to tidy it up, but basically I feel what I write down first has got the impetus, it may be clumsy, it may be repetitive, but a good editor can take that out. That first writing bit is the best thing you will do.”

Feels Writing Trying Firsts May Bits Best Things Editors Clumsy Tidy Repetitive Impetus

Author:Gerald Seymour

“I don't think about age groups when I write, although I think if I know I'm writing for Children I'll be a bit more ambitious, and think more about every word, because I know that they pay closer attention when they read than adults do.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Children Age Bits Pay Attention Groups Adults Ambitious

Author:Neil Gaiman

“I want to make films and write films, which will happen, I'm just taking a different route right now. I'm a bit of a chameleon with the whole entertainment industry so to speak.”

Want Writing Different Whole Happens Film Speak Bits Industry Right Now Entertainment Routes Entertainment Industry Chameleon

Author:David Boreanaz

“I was always a bit reluctant with anything like fame and the limelight and it didn't sit very well with me, although I love singing and writing.”

Writing Wells Bits Fame Singing Reluctant Limelight

Author:Alex Parks

“This is the way life goes in Big Sur. Waiting for the mail, watching the sea-lions in the surf or the freighters on the horizon, sitting in the tubs at Hot Springs, once in a while a bit of drink - and, most of the time, working at what ever it is that you came here to work on, whether it be painting, writing, gardening or the simple art of living your own life.”

Source: Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

“Portland in particular is a cheap enough place to live that you can still develop your passion - painting, writing, music. People seem less status-conscious. Even wealthy people buy second-hand clothes and look a little bit homeless.”

“Songwriting as an art is a bit archaic now. Just writing a song is not good enough.”

Writing Art Enough Song Bits Art Is Songwriting Good Enough Not Good Enough

Book:David Bowie: The Last Interview

Source: David Bowie: The Last Interview

“Each day is a surprise - and each day I learn something wonderful and new. Both in writing thrillers and in reporting the news, I work to change the world a little bit. I want readers - and viewers - to be surprised and captivated and even inspired.”

World Want Writing Littles Bits Wonderful Reader Little Bit News Surprise Inspired Changing The World Each Day Viewers Thrillers Captivated

Author:Hank Phillippi Ryan

“The horrible truth is that I am lazy and I am going to write and do bits that just hand themselves to me.”

Writing Hands Bits Truth Is Horrible Lazy

Author:Al Madrigal

“Style is the thing that's always a bit phony, and at the same time you cannot write without style.”

Writing Bits Style Phony

Book:The Death Of The Heart

Source: The Death Of The Heart

“I think that very often younger writers don't appreciate how much hard work is involved in writing. The part of writing that's magic is the thinnest rind on the world of creation. Most of a writer's life is just work. It happens to be a kind of work that the writer finds fulfilling in the same way that a watchmaker can happily spend countless hours fiddling over the tiny cogs and bits of wire. ... I think the people who end up being writers are people who don't get bored doing that kind of tight focus in small areas.”

People Thinking World Way Writing Kind Ends Hard Happens Life Is Bits Hours Focus Magic Creation Hard Work Involved Areas Appreciate Tiny Bored Working It Fulfilling Wire Cogs

Author:Diane Ackerman

“Writers are much better behaved nowadays, for a couple of reasons. Once upon a time nobody was thinking of a career, unless you lived in New York, so there wasn't as much pressure to present a respectable exterior. And secondly, there was no social media. So if you were found face down on the floor - people did do that quite a bit; usually men, but not always - or fell through plate glass windows or got into scrapes, it became a rumor, and rumors are hard to pin down.”

People Ifs Thinking Men Writing Hard Reason Faces Found Social Bits Careers Media New York Couple Window Pressure Glasses Social Media Plates Rumor Pins Respectable Once Upon A Time Exterior

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I'm a bit of a political geek anyway, so you tend to write how you think the rhythms of an administration will go.”

Thinking Writing Political Bits Rhythm Administration Geek

Author:Armando Iannucci

“My feeling is that I think writers in general tend to be self-conscious and it takes a bit of a leap of faith or just not giving a sh-t to write something you know people are going to criticize.”

People Thinking Knows Giving Writing Self Feelings Bits Conscious Criticize Leap Self Conscious Leap Of Faith

Author:Conor Oberst

“Writing about writing is a bit like talking about a conversation you are having; it tends to obscure desperation about where the next word is coming from.”

Writing Next Bits Talking Conversation Obscure Desperation

Book:A year in the dark: journal of a film critic, 1968-69

Source: A year in the dark: journal of a film critic, 1968-69

“I think that if I get into the habit of writing a bit about what happens, or rather doesn't happen, I may lose a little of the sense of isolation and desolation which abides with me. My circumstances allowing of nothing but the ejaculation of one-syllabled reflections, a written monologue by that most interesting being, myself, may have its yet to be discovered consolations.”

“The only difficulty is to know what bits to choose and what to leave out. Novel-writing is not creation, it is selection.”

Knows Writing Bits Novel Creation Difficulty Selection Novel Writing

Book:Letters to a Friend

Source: Letters to a Friend

“People begin to write in order to create what they have not found and, a little bit, to give something back.”

People Giving Writing Littles Order Found Bits Little Bit

Author:Dorothy Allison

“the compulsion to read and write - and it seems to me it should be, even must be, a compulsion - is a bit of mental wiring the species has selected, over time, in order, as the life span increases, to keep us interested in ourselves.”

Should Writing Seems Order Reading Bits Increase Species Compulsion Selected Life Span Wiring

Author:Lorrie Moore

“When someone like Kurt Cobain or Jack White comes out, they didn't go, "He sounds just like Muddy Waters," did they? They just said, "He's great, he sounds like him." When women come out and men write about them, they tend to write about them in a way that other men can understand, which sometimes can seem a bit patronizing.”

Men Way Writing Said Sometimes Seems Bits Sound Water White Muddy Cobain Patronizing

Author:Shingai Shoniwa

“Writing the opening lines of a story is a bit like starting to ski at the steepest part of a hill. You must have all your skills under control from the first instant.”

Writing Firsts Stories Bits Lines Skills Starting Opening Hills Instant Skis

Book:Our Stories: A Fiction Workshop for Young Authors

Source: Our Stories: A Fiction Workshop for Young Authors

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