Best exercise & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“I love comedy and I would write things to myself as an exercise in writing. I didn't do well for years, and I quit. I started to break down why I was afraid and started to look at people I admired, like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Freddie Prinze, George Carlin and all.”

People Writing Years Wells Looks Break Comedy Exercise Quitting Breaking Down I Quit Murphy

Author:George Lopez

“Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.”

Writing Made Character Born Exercise Flesh Free Will Volition Fictional Character

Author:John Banville

“Regard yourself as a small corporation of one. Take yourself off on team-building exercises (long walks). Hold a Christmas party every year at which you stand in the corner of your writing room, shouting very loudly to yourself while drinking a bottle of white wine. Then masturbate under the desk. The following day you will feel a deep and cohering sense of embarrassment.”

“I try to write about small insignificant things. I try to find out if it’s possible to say anything about them. And I almost always do if I sit down and write about something. There is something in that thing that I can write about. It’s very much like a rehearsal. An exercise, in a way.”

Ifs Way Writing Trying I Can Exercise Down And Say Anything Insignificant Rehearsal Insignificant Things

Author:Karl Ove Knausgard

“It is a very good exercise, at least from a historian's point of view, to imagine oneself a devout pagan while reading various Christian writings.”

Writing Christian Reading Views Imagine Exercise Very Good Oneself Various Point Of View Historian Pagan Good Exercise

Author:Ramsay MacMullen

“For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style.”

Men Writing Wells Three Style Exercise Speakers

Author:Ben Jonson

“I have a rule: before I can throw anything out, I have to write down five possible uses for it. This stretches my mind and keeps it nimble - just like stretching exercises do for my body.”

Writing Mind I Can Use Body Five Exercise Stretching Nimble

Author:Anna Olson

“I compelled myself all through to write an exercise in verse, in a different form, every day of the year. I turned out my page every day, of some sort - I mean I didn't give a damn about the meaning, I just wanted to master the form - all the way from free verse, Walt Whitman, to the most elaborate of villanelles and ballad forms. Very good training. I've always told everybody who has ever come to me that I thought that was the first thing to do.”

Way Giving Writing Years Firsts Mean Different Wanted Form Masters Exercise Pages Training Very Good Damn Things To Do Verses Compelled Walt Ballads Days Of The Year Free Verse

Author:Conrad Aiken

“Fortunately, I'm able to make a living from comics, so I'm privileged enough to be quite choosy, though most cartoonists can't afford to be. It's really an uncomfortable situation, since I'm not an illustrator, though I do get calls from morally indefensible businesses offering me money to decorate their ambitions. It's extremely rare, almost unheard of, in fact, that I am asked to do a comic strip. Do writers get calls to pen Toyota advertisements? Do composers get asked to write chamber pieces about exercise machines?”

“Exercise your imagination muscle! How many uses can you come up with for a flowerpot? Write down your answers. But don't write them in this book. Grab a separate sheet of paper. I didn't spend two and a half weeks writing a book just so you could mark up the pages with your silly ideas for things you can do with a flowerpot. When it comes down to it, what's wrong with a flowerpot not being a flowerpot? Why is nothing ever good enough for you?”

Writing Two Book Ideas Enough Use Can Do Imagination Answers Half Week Exercise Paper Pages Mark Come Up Silly Muscles Good Enough Sheets Writing A Book

Author:Amy Sedaris

“You don't learn to write by going through a series of preset writing exercises. You learn to write by grappling with a real subject that truly matters to you.”

Writing Real Matter Learning Subjects Exercise Series Grappling

Author:Ralph Fletcher

“To me, the process of writing is just reading what I've written and - like running your hand over one of those mod glass stovetops to find where the heat is - looking for where the energy is in the prose, then going in the direction of that. It's an exercise in being open to whatever is there.”

Writing Hands Running Reading Energy Process Written Exercise Glasses Heat Prose Mods

Author:George Saunders

“When I was younger, I avoided exercise or anything strenuous. I didn't even enjoy walking. As I got older, I spent so much time marking books or sitting at a desk writing that there was no room for exercise - not that I would have bothered anyway.”

Writing Book Enjoy Rooms Walking Exercise Sitting Desks Avoided Bothered Marking Time

Author:Maeve Binchy

“To me, writing is much freer than dancing. With writing, you could do it whenever you wanted. You didnt have to do little exercises and stay in shape. You could have great moments of inspiration that advanced the story. In dance, unless youre going to choreograph things yourself, youre at the service of someone else.”

Writing Littles Moments Stories Inspiration Wanted Exercise Shapes Dancing Great Moments

Author:Lorrie Moore

“I get so much inspiration from my travels, but I also started an exercise where I write down so many words every week. Then I begin crossing them off. We create a grid of words and also images, but words for me are more ample because you can interpret them your own way.”

Way Writing Inspiration Week Exercise Crossings Grids

Author:Francisco Costa

“I think my very earliest stories were all intellectual exercises and I was writing from experiences I had never had about characters who were about an inch deep.”

Thinking Writing Character Stories Exercise Intellectual Inches

Author:George R. R. Martin

“I always give my students exercises where they really have to open a vein and bleed all over the paper and that's the way you get the important characters. Sooner or later every writer worth reading writes a story his mother wouldn't read and having to get that stuff out is part of one's growth as a writer.”

Way Giving Writing Important Character Stories Mother Reading Stuff Growth Students Exercise Paper Sooner Or Later Veins Worth Reading

Author:George R. R. Martin

“I can manage my own pain. I can drink. I can go to the doctor and get a prescription. I can exercise. I can write a story about it. I've done it a million times! But I don't want to see the people I love tortured and suffering.”

People Want Writing I Can Done Stories Pain Suffering My Own Millions Exercise Drink Doctors Manage Prescriptions

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

“My writing process isn't a very organized thing. The actual writing part is a tiny part of my life. I often write in public. I bring my laptop or write freehand in notebooks. Then, I'll read through them while I exercise or walk the dog. The very last thing I do is the sitting alone at the computer part.”

Writing Lasts Process Walks Dog Exercise Computer Sitting Tiny Organized Writing Process Notebook Laptops Sitting Alone

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

“Writing is, after all, a gesture towards other people, giving something to others. And so it's not a completely hermetic exercise. It's really an opening up.”

People Giving Writing Exercise Opening Gestures Opening Up

Author:Paul Auster

“The idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio...well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else.”

Giving Writing Wells Persons Has Beens Ideas States Song Sound Exercise Give Me Satisfaction Studios Songwriting Arrangements Nurture Masterpiece Writing Songs Envisioning

Author:Brian Wilson

“If you're a musician, you can practice your guitar every day and write songs, but when you're an actor, you can't just like burst into a monologue. Your only exercise is when you're in prep or you're working.”

Ifs Writing Song Actors Practice Exercise Musician Guitar Monologues Preps

Author:Winona Ryder

“The writing of an assay-type poem or a poem investigating perspective isn't an exercise of rational or strategic mind. Poems for me are acts of small or large desperation. They grapple with surfaces too steep to walk in any other way, yet which have to be traveled.”

Way Writing Mind Walks Perspective Type Exercise Surface Rational Traveled Desperation Strategic Steep Investigating

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“When I'm in the studio, I write the music, I play the different instruments, I produce it, I arrange it, and it's a self-indulgent exercise. It's the way I make my music. And when I'm acting, I get to leave myself behind, which is a relief. I get to collaborate with a director; I respect the director's medium and all the actors and actresses. So at the end of the day, it's about a character and it's about a director's vision. It's a really good balance for being so intense and alone in my personal process of making music.”

“Read non-fiction. History, biology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology. Get a bodyguard and do fieldwork. Find your inner fish. Don't publish too soon. Not before you have read Thomas Mann in any case. Learn by copying, sentence by sentence some of the masters. Copy Coetzee's or Sebald's sentences and see what happens to your story. Consider creative non-fiction if you want to stay in South Africa. It might be the way to go. Never neglect back and hamstring exercises, otherwise you won't be able to write your novel. One needs one's buttocks to think.”

“Read Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible. You will particularly hate the advice to write first thing in the morning, but if you can manage it, it might well be the best thing you ever do for yourself. This book is about becoming a writer from the inside out. Many later advice manuals derive from it. You don't really need any others, though if you want to boost your confidence, "how to" books seldom do any harm. You can kick-start a whole book with some little writing exercise.”

“I regard writing not as an investigation of character but as an exercise in the use of language, and with this I am obsessed.”

Writing Character Use Language Exercise Regard Obsessed Investigation Use Of Language

Author:Evelyn Waugh

“When I sit down at the typewriter, I write. Someone once asked me if I had a fixed routine before I start, like setting up exercises, sharpening pencils, or having a drink of orange juice. I said, "No, the only thing I do before I start writing is to make sure that I'm close enough to the typewriter to reach the keys."”

Ifs Writing Said Enough Keys Exercise Drink Setting Settings Fixed Routine Orange Pencils Juice Typewriters Sharpening Orange Juice Sharpening Pencils

Author:Isaac Asimov

“A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons.”

People Writing Looks Important Facts Feelings Remember Force Exercise Mirrors Screens Honestly Memoir Demon Blank

Author:Isabel Allende

“Just as I cannot remember any time when I could not read and write, I cannot remember any time when I did not exercise my imagination in daydreams about women.”

Writing Remember Imagination Exercise My Imagination Daydreaming

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“I get very frustrated by this term 'genre exercise.' I mean, what exactly is that? Genre is not really relevant when you are writing a song; hopefully you are doing it to explore something, to create something, and I don't agree that any of my albums are genre exercises.”

Writing Mean Song Term Exercise Agree Albums Hopefully Genre Relevant Frustrated Genre Is Exactly Is

Author:Elvis Costello

“I am compulsive about writing, I need to do it the way I need sleep and exercise and food and sex; I can go without it for a while, but then I need it.”

Way Needs Writing I Can Sex Sleep Exercise Need Sleep

Author:John Irving

“I felt ugly, chubby, and stupid until I talked to my mom about it and she had me do a very good exercise that I recommend to every girl. She had me take a piece of paper and write down everything I liked and everything that I didn't like about my body and my life. By the end of the exercise, I realized that I had so many more things in my likes column. It showed me that while there are a few things in my dislikes column, I was giving ALL my attention to those few things!”

Giving Writing Ends Body Girl Felt Attention Pieces Stupid Mom Exercise Paper Very Good Ugly My Mom I Realized Likes Dislike Columns Every Girl Good Exercise

Author:Coco Rocha

“Sometimes I think of blogging as finger exercises for a violinist; sometimes I think of it as mulching a garden. It is incredibly useful and helpful to my "real" writing.”

Thinking Writing Real Sometimes Exercise Garden Fingers Helpful Blogging Violinist

Author:Kate Christensen

“Curiously, the balance seems to come when writing is woven into every aspect of my life, like eating or exercising - one flows constantly into the next: I'll wake up and have coffee, read the news, then write a letter or two (always in longhand), then go teach, and after teaching write a bit in a journal - dreams, what I had for breakfast and lunch and why I had it, what's on the iPod, sexual habits, etc. - then read a bit, then work on a real bit of writing...you get the idea.”

Writing Two Ideas Real Dream Seems Next Bits Teach Teaching Habit Balance Exercise Eating News Aspect Flow Letters Wake Up Coffee Etc Breakfast Lunch Journal Woven Ipods

Author:Kevin Keck

“When I originally wrote "Jealousy," it was more like an exercise to try to write a girl-group kind of pop song. It was really contrary to most of the material I'd ever written. I didn't pay much attention to the song after I'd recorded it. I didn't really perform it at all the last 20 years. When it came time to make the new record, I decided to make peace with the song and have fun with it.”

Writing Trying Years Kind Lasts Song Girl Fun Pay Attention Records Written Groups Materials Exercise Decided Pops Contrary Having Fun Making Peace Pop Song Girl Groups

Author:Natalie Merchant

“Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well...Writing about why the positive events in your life happened may seem awkward at first, but please stick with it for one week. It will get easier. The odds are that you will be less depressed, happier, and addicted to this exercise six months from now.”

“I made commercials for corporations like Volkswagen and Coca-Cola, but I was always the one to write them, too, which was a very good exercise, because I learned to tell little stories.”

Writing Littles Made Stories Exercise Very Good Corporations Coca Cola Good Exercise Volkswagens

Author:Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

“One of the reasons why I agreed to do commercials is that they gave me complete freedom. I just had to have the car in it and write a story around it. I wanted to do something serious set in a Latin American country, but again, it was an exercise in style for me.”

Writing Country Reason Stories Wanted Car Style Serious Exercise Reason Why Latin Latin America Latin American Complete Freedom

Author:Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

“It's been a very interesting exercise as a writer - writing a little family group, like The Incredibles or The Simpsons or something like that, and setting it in a big Star Wars-type setting. It's been really fun, definitely different from the kind of thing I normally do.”

Writing Kind Littles Different War Bigs Fun Stars Interesting Groups Type Exercise Incredibles Setting Settings Very Interesting

Author:Mark Millar

“A typical workday for me is getting up at about 5:00, 5:15 in the morning, getting some coffee or tea as quickly as possible, and then getting to my desk. And ideally, I'll start writing around 5:30, 5:45, and I'll write for three, four hours, and then I'll take a break, and read over what I write. Maybe about lunchtime, I'll go exercise or get out into the day. Then I'll either read over what I wrote the day before and quit work around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon and spend some time with my kids.”

Writing Kids Three Hours Break Morning Four Exercise Coffee Quitting Tea Afternoon Desks Typical Lunchtime

Author:Eric Schlosser

“Exercise and writing are so therapeutic to me. I try to write every day and I make it a huge priority to find time to work out, even if that means taking a spin class at 7am before work.”

Ifs Writing Trying Mean Class Huge Exercise Work Out Priorities Therapeutic

Author:Sadie Calvano

“All I did was collect a few of the questions I've been asked through the years, write up a brief response and put them in this publication. As a pastor, you get asked questions and receive emails. Many of them I had answered, but just in conversation. So we kind of re-crafted the question and answered it. It turned out to be an interesting exercise. I hope it's encouraging for people.”

People Writing Years Kind Interesting Exercise Conversation Response Pastor Email Publication Through The Years

Author:Max Lucado

“In my Deep Listening class at RPI, I always do an hour of energy exercises to start with. Then we do a listening meditation after that, after the body has been loosened up and warmed up and is ready. We do the listening. After that, there's the journaling of the experience, which they do each time throughout the semester to the point that I have them write a final paper on what they've experienced.”

Writing Has Beens Body Energy Hours Class Meditation Ready Listening Exercise Paper Finals Journaling Semester Deep Listening

Author:Pauline Oliveros

“People try to apply directly results from the cognitive neurosciences directly to classroom practice and I have to tell you I am very skeptical about the exercise. We don't know very much about how the brain works - we don't even know how you remember to write your name.”

People Knows Writing Trying Remember Names Results Brain Practice Know How Exercise Classroom Neuroscience Skeptical Cognitive

Author:John Medina

“The writing I have in mind and sometimes indulge in myself is concerned, not with plants, mountains or birds as items of scientific description, but with experiences of nature that impinge upon our moods and emotions, enrich our imagination and reveries, and shape our sense of how we stand in relation to the environing world. In a broad sense of the term, this kind of writing is an exercise in phenomenology, an attempt to render the significance that birds, plants or whatever have for us.”

“People are gonna think that MTV censored me, and they really didn't. I really wanted to try to make a show that didn't rely on offensive, edgy material because I think it was an exercise in trying to write without that. Because I see that as a crutch sometimes and I want to know that I can do something funny and worthwhile without that. And also make a show that my parents would like and that kids could watch with their parents.”

People Thinking Knows Want Writing Trying I Can Sometimes Shows Kids Wanted Parent Can Do Watches Materials Exercise Rely Worthwhile Offensive Can Do Something Mtv Edgy Crutches Censored

Author:Bo Burnham

“For me writing isn't a mental exercise, it's barely even a literary exercise, it feels like a spiritual experience.”

Writing Spiritual Exercise Spiritual Experience

Author:Ottessa Moshfegh

“I have a lot more writing experience than Paul Dano has, so to be able to put that experience to use in exercising his vision was almost an acting exercise: How would I write if I were Paul? When I look at it, it feels so completely his, but it's also mine.”

Writing Acting Vision Exercise

Author:Zoe Kazan

“It's not often I get to do a film that turns out good. Plus, there just aren't that many great directors out there. There are a thousand different decisions that need to be made with each script and it's the good directors that can make those decisions. It's a long and complicated process in regards to what looks good on paper. Working on a bad film can be fun too. It can be a good exercise that gets you writing.”

Writing Long Different Film Fun Decision Exercise Complicated

Author:Dean Wareham

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