Best firsts & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Writing was my first occupation, begun at age 23.”

“They told me that they are starting a classic label, and wanted me to be the first artist. So I signed, and am producing myself, and writing my own music, but I'm their first artist on their classic label. And I have creative control.”

Writing Firsts Wanted Artist My Own Creative Starting Labels Classic

Author:Teena Marie

“Then in my early teens, when the home computer bubble was blowing, I had one of the first, an Acorn Atom, and used to write primitive adventures on that.”

Writing Firsts Home Used Adventure Computer Atoms Bubbles Teens Primitive Acorns

Author:Graham Nelson

“It all has to do with art - writing, painting, things I’ve done for a long time but just never had enough time to pursue. I have poetry - things that are designed for songs, but they’re always poems first.”

Writing Firsts Long Art Done Enough Song Painting Long Time Pursue Enough Time Had Enough

Author:Jason Newsted

“I have been writing poetry since 1975. My first poetry book was published in 1986.”

Writing Firsts Has Beens Book Writing Poetry

Author:Taslima Nasrin

“The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too - eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko's, Fatburger, Subway - I was a sandwich artist - and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.”

People Writing Years Firsts Jobs Artist Song Half Four Claims Studios Sandwiches Eleven Writing Songs Subway Half A Year Processors

Author:Frank Ocean

“It's time to start really writing some stuff, and I really wanted to write some stuff in the vein of the original Misfits, and this was really the first step in that direction.”

Writing Firsts Wanted Stuff Steps Originals First Steps Veins Misfits

Author:Gerald Caiafa

“A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.”

Knows Want Writing Firsts Book Childhood Your Children

Author:Tea Obreht

“Well, first you have to love writing. A lot of authors love having written. But I enjoy the actual writing. Beside that, I think the main reason I can be so prolific is the huge amount of planning I do before I start to write. I do a very complete, chapter-by-chapter outline of every book I write. When I sit down to write, I already know everything that's going to happen in the book. This means I've done all the important thinking, and I can relax and enjoy the writing. I could never write so many books if I didn't outline them first.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Firsts Wells Mean I Can Important Book Reason Done Happens Enjoy Written Huge Amount Planning Relax Chapters Outlines

Author:R. L. Stine

“The first draft is just a skeleton-just bare bones. It's like the very first rehearsal of a play, where the director moves the actors around mechanically to get a feel of the action.”

Feels Writing Firsts Play Action Moving Actors Directors Bones Rehearsal Skeletons

Author:Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“Don't be pretentious is my first advice to young writers. This is the big problem - just because you're getting an MFA doesn't mean you have to write for the Academy. Be true to your personality. Don't temper your personality down with words. Don't build defensive fortresses around yourself with words - words are your friends.”

Writing Firsts Mean Problem Bigs Young Advice Personality Being True Temper Academy Pretentious Big Problems Fortresses Young Writers

Author:Gary Shteyngart

“If you can stand to wait 24 hours before you decide the fate of what you have written - either good or bad - you're more likely to see that invisible thing that is invisible for the first few days in any new writing. We just can't know what all is in a sentence until there are several sentences to follow it. Pages of writing need more pages in order to be known, chapters need more chapters.”

Ifs Knows Needs Writing Firsts Order Waiting Hours Known Fate Written Pages Sentences Invisible Chapters Invisible Things

Author:Lynda Barry

“I was not going to use writing for advertising or journalism. I would tend bar, load trucks, chauffeur - do whatever it took. But from the moment I took my first writing workshop, I was a writer.”

Writing Firsts Moments Use Bars Advertising Journalism Load Truck Workshops Chauffeurs Writing Workshop

Author:Dennis Lehane

“For the first-time novelist you've got to get up at 5:30 in the morning and write until 7, make breakfast and go to work. Or, come home and work for an hour. Everybody has an hour in their day somewhere.”

Writing Firsts Home Hours Morning First Time Get Up Novelists Coming Home Breakfast

Author:Ridley Pearson

“I've written short stories in first person, but you have so much more control writing in third person. Third person, you know what everybody's thinking. First person is very limiting, and I could never sustain a first person novel before.”

Thinking Knows Writing Firsts Persons Stories Novel Written Thirds Short Story First Person Third Person Thinking First

Author:Tamora Pierce

“Now I'm trying to work outside first person. I do plan to write more books.”

Writing Trying Firsts Persons Book Plans Work Out First Person

Author:Brent Runyon

“I wrote for years before I was ever published, and I don't think I could ever stop. That said, I was also a veterinarian before I sold my first book, and I still volunteer my time to help with animal welfare causes. So that is a career I would be happy to return to - while still secretly writing strange stories back in my doctor's office.”

“I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down.”

Writing Firsts Stories

Author:Nora Roberts

“When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.”

People Knows Writing Firsts Stories Hands Situation Century Originals Familiar Nineteenth Century

Book:Satyajit Ray: Interviews

Source: Satyajit Ray: Interviews

“When I was writing my first two books I was also freelancing and teaching and doing other odd jobs.”

Writing Firsts Two Book Jobs Teaching Odd Odd Jobs

Author:Curtis Sittenfeld

“Fiction writers are strange beasts. They are, like all writers, observers first and foremost. Everything that happens to and around them is potential material for a story, and they look at it that way.”

Way Writing Firsts Looks Stories Happens Fiction Strange Materials Beast Observers Fiction Writers

Book:Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life

Source: Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life

“It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.”

“It can take years. With the first draft, I just write everything. With the second draft, it becomes so depressing for me, because I realize that I was fooled into thinking I'd written the story. I hadn't-I had just typed for a long time. So then I have to carve out a story from the 25 or so pages. It's in there somewhere-but I have to find it. I'll then write a third, fourth, and fifth draft, and so on.”

Thinking Writing Years Firsts Long Stories Realizing Written Pages Long Time Thirds Fourth Depressing Fifth Fooled

Author:David Sedaris

“It is very, very difficult for a playwright to write a scene in which a young man has his first deep experience of sex with a girl whom he found immensely attractive, is fully satisfied by this event and gets up and blinds a lot of horses.”

Men Writing Firsts Young Girl Found Sex Difficult Events Scene Horse Satisfied Get Up Attractive Young Man Playwright

Author:Peter Shaffer

“My second album was written while I was on the road promoting the first record. I tried to take my personal experiences and elevate them to universal experiences, so that I wasn't writing songs about living on a tour bus or being on a TV set for the first time.”

Writing Firsts Song Records Written Tvs First Time Universal Albums Bus Promoting Living On Writing Songs Personal Experiences

Author:Kate Voegele

“I was thinking about what I wanted to write next, after my first novel, and had decided that I wanted to write a story with a lot of strong female characters in it.”

Thinking Writing Firsts Character Stories Wanted Next Strong Novel Female Decided Female Characters Strong Female Characters Strong Female

Author:Joan D. Vinge

“I had been a reporter for 15 years when I set out to write my first novel. I knew how to research an article or profile a subject - skills that I assumed would be useless when it came to fiction. It was from my imagination that the characters in my story would emerge.”

Writing Years Firsts Character Stories Would Be Imagination Fiction Novel Subjects Skills Research Useless Articles Reporters My Imagination Profile

Author:Amy Waldman

“When the babies were very young, I found it difficult to write. I told myself each time that it would be different, I was used to it now, but with every child, for the first four months, I would accomplish nothing.”

Writing Firsts Children Different Would Be Young Used Found Difficult Four Baby Months Accomplish Accomplish Nothing

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. The idea is hard to accept. We all have emotional equity in our first draft; we can't believe that it wasn't born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn't.”

Writing Firsts Believe Wells Ideas Hard Games Lost Born Perfect Accepting Emotional Percent Essence Odds Equity Rewriting Writing Well

Author:William Zinsser

“It's one of the things writing students don't understand. They write a first draft and are quite disappointed, or often should be disappointed. They don't understand that they have merely begun, and that they may be merely beginning even in the second or third draft.”

Should Writing Firsts May Students Thirds Disappointed

Author:Elizabeth Hardwick

“Never be satisfied with a first draft. In fact, never be satisfied with your own stuff at all, until you're certain it's as good as your finite powers can enable it to be.”

Writing Firsts Facts Certain Stuff Satisfied Finite

Author:Rose Tremain

“Getting that first draft out is a horribly hard grind, but that (perversely) is where the joy of it lies.”

Writing Firsts Hard Joy Lying Grind

Author:Jonathan Stroud

“LOVE LETTERS TO YOURSELF This is taken from a love letter (a gentle reminder) I wrote to myself recently. Live in your joy today. Be authentic. Love yourself. First. Love others from your own abundance. Life Changes. Circumstances change. Sometimes you try to fit your old way of being into new circumstances rather than becoming new yourself. Embrace transformation as an opportunity. And keep on writing love letters to yourself.”

“I like to write first-person because I like to become the character I'm writing.”

Writing Firsts Persons Character First Person

Author:Wally Lamb

“When I first started writing for television in the seventies and eighties, the Internet didn't exist, and we didn't need to worry about foreign websites illegally distributing the latest TV shows and blockbuster movies online.”

Needs Writing Firsts Shows Worry Television Tvs Internet Online Tv Shows Seventies Eighty Website Blockbuster

Author:Al Franken

“I tend to write first drafts that are incredibly cognitive, very rational, very boring. They come off as justification. Like, 'This is my idea and here's all the reasons that it's right.' It doesn't make for very compelling reading.”

Writing Firsts Ideas Reason Reading Boring Rational Justification Compelling Cognitive

Author:Donald Miller

“You have to be very brave in that first writing session.”

Writing Firsts Brave Session

Author:Barry Mann

“Every book I write, the first thing I have to do is get into the voice, and the voice varies from book to book - that's part of what's interesting to me.”

Writing Firsts Book Voice Interesting Vary

Author:China Mieville

“I grew up on the crime stuff. Spillane, Chandler, Jim Thompson, and noir movies like Fuller, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang. When I first showed up in New York to write comics back in the late 1970s, I came with a bunch of crime stories but everybody just wanted men in tights.”

Men Writing Firsts Stories Wanted Stuff Crime New York Grew Late Grew Up Bunch Noir Tights Fritz Lang

Author:Frank Miller

“If you'd like to meet some fully realized characters while learning some specifics of Zimbabwe's postcolonial struggles, as I did, you're likely to come away with a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. If you're willing to settle for first-rate writing and provocative meditations on memory, corruption and loss, they are all here in abundance.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Character Feelings Memories Loss Struggle Meditation Willing Rate Corruption Settling Abundance Vague Dissatisfaction Provocative Zimbabwe Specifics

Author:Jabari Asim

“My first real writing job was at 'Rolling Stone,' so I wrote about rock-and-roll and politics and the like. At the time, I really didn't know what I wanted to write, and I did a bunch of investigative journalism.”

Knows Writing Firsts Real Wanted Jobs Rocks Stones Bunch Journalism Rolling Rock And Roll Rolling Stones Investigative Journalism

Author:Tim Cahill

“The best writing advice I had was [in] ‘Heinlein’s Rules for Writers’ by (American science fiction author) Robert A. Heinlein. His first rule is that you must write, and I was already doing that, but his second rule is, ‘You must finish what you write,’ and that had a big impact on me.”

Writing Firsts Bigs Fiction Advice Impact Science Fiction Writing Advice Big Impact Robert Heinlein

Author:George R. R. Martin

“I'm a songwriter; that's where it starts. I love writing with someone that shares that same feeling of accomplishment. I'll play music for my fans as long as they'll listen, but I fancy myself as a writer first.”

Writing Firsts Long Play Feelings Share Fans Accomplishment Fancy Songwriters

Author:Randy Houser

“I took a writing class in college, liked it, and my first year out of school I couldn't get a job, so I wrote a play.”

Writing Years Firsts Play School Jobs Class College

Author:Zoe Kazan

“I never write in a linear way. And I tell students not to. You can only know so much about a book when you first start.”

Knows Way Writing Firsts Book Students Linear

Author:Carol Anshaw

“It's a gift that I have and I became good at it. When I heard my first song I didn't even know that I could write songs.”

Knows Writing Firsts Song Heard

Author:Rico Love

“Compelling a man by law to pay his money to elect candidates or advocate law or doctrines he is against differs only in degree, if at all, from compelling him by law to speak for a candidate, a party, or a cause he is against. The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.”

People Ifs Thinking Men Writing Firsts Country Reason Government Law Speak Wish Causes Party Pay Liberty Degrees Worship Doctrine Command Candidates Amendments Compelling First Amendment

Author:Hugo Black

“The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.”

People Thinking Writing Firsts Country Reason Government Speak Wish Liberty Worship Command Amendments First Amendment

Author:Hugo Black

“Writing is so hard.... The first draft writing is so hard that sometimes in the beginning, before the work itself takes over, carrying you on its flood, you must give yourself rewards. "When I write this chapter, I can call my boyfriend." "When I finish one page more, I can get an ice cream cone." "If I write this section, I'll find a check in the mail."”

Ifs Giving Writing Firsts I Can Sometimes Hard Pages Rewards Checks Ice Mail Chapters Flood Cream Sections Ice Cream My Boyfriend Cones Ice Cream Cones

Author:Sophy Burnham

“Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.”

Writing Firsts House Talking Pressure Opening Yards Upstairs

Book:Selected Letters

Source: Selected Letters

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Firsts Quotes