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Good Writing Quotes

Browse 245 quotes about Good Writing.

Good Writing Quotes

“As I started to read nonfiction in the mid '70s, I discovered, holy cow, there was a lot of imaginative nonfiction. Not the kind where people use composite characters and invented quotes. I hate that kind of nonfiction. But imaginative in the sense that good writing and unexpected structure and vivid reporting could be combined with presenting facts.”

People Writing Kind Character Facts Use Hate Holy I Hate Structure Unexpected Cows Nonfiction Imaginative Vivid Presenting Good Writing Composites

Author:David Quammen

“Nobody sounds good writing about your divorce, let's face it.”

Writing Faces Sound Divorce Good Writing

Author:Mary Karr

“I'm so respectful of good writing. It's the blueprint for the movie. You have to have that script there because, if you don't, you're going to have problems. It's very important. It's also a gut instinct.”

Ifs Writing Important Problem Instinct Scripts Guts Respectful Good Writing Blueprints Gut Instinct

Author:Molly Shannon

“I would say that I am proud of my performance from Cracker and I think a lot of that was due to the writing was just so good. It's so rare that you get such good writing these days but it was awhile ago.”

Thinking Writing Proud Performances Dues These Days Good Writing Crackers

Author:Boti Bliss

“These days, most of my interactions with young people are centered on the poetry or theater classes I teach, so the students I know are reading contemporary poets (they love Willie Perdomo) and scripts (No Child, by Nilaja Sun and Twilight by Anna Deavere Smith). I don't know their reading habits outside of our class, but I believe that they enjoy stories that they can relate to, learn from, be challenged by - you know, the usual good writing that every reader craves.”

“Distinguish between the work and the job title. When I was leaving school in the early 1970s, many people wanted to be journalists, carrying out investigative reporting for print newspapers. Print newspapers may not exist in twenty years. But good thinking and good writing about issues that need to be reported and investigated will always be needed; but where this happens, what it is called, and who pays for it may be quite different than could have been envisioned by the great journalists of the past.”

“A sustained engagement with the world, a sense of how it was and how it ought to be, and what has been lost, is imperative to good writing - I just don't know how you can be a serious writer without it.”

Knows World Writing Has Beens Lost Know How Serious Ought Engagement Imperatives Good Writing

Author:Pankaj Mishra

“Part of what makes for good writing is an ear for what we would call the poetical. Poetry itself is another thing and it seems to me to be the most difficult writing - that those people are the best writers and they lead the way for everyone else and their writing is frighteningly great.”

People Way Writing Seems Difficult Ears Good Writing

Author:Tony Kushner

“What's great about good writing is that it feels like life, so it's not hard to relate to her circumstances.”

Writing Circumstances Good Writing

Author:Carrie Coon

“In an age of malice and bad faith on many sides, I reread White or Thurber or Mitchell and am reminded again that good writing is done, as I said in my elegy for Salinger, with an active eye and ear and an ardent heart, and in no other way.”

Writing Heart Done Eye Age Malice Good Writing

Author:Adam Gopnik

“There's a perception that good writing is writing which runs smoothly. But smooth-running prose can work against what you're trying to express in a novel.”

Writing Trying Running Novel Perception Prose Good Writing

Author:Katie Kitamura

“I'm not an ad-libber. If I'm asked to ad-lib, I can ad-lib forever and it's really fun to do that, but I find that well-written scripts are put together very carefully. Once you start to ad-lib and add words to sentences, there's a slacking that happens. When it's good writing, it's taut. I'm not judging people who do ad-lib.”

People Writing Together Fun Forever Judging Good Writing

Author:James Marsters

“I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.”

Thinking Writing Believe Reading I Believe Resurrection Good Writing Derivatives Good Reading

Author:Charles Kuralt

“You can have good writing, but a great actor will make it feel and sound like great writing. You can have great writing, and mediocre actors will make it feel mediocre. Without the actors, you have nothing.”

Feels Writing Actors Sound Mediocre Good Writing Great Actors Great Writing

Author:Denis Leary

“I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me.”

Writing Littles Book Reading Boys Someday Reading Books Little Boys Good Writing

Author:Naguib Mahfouz

“The studios don't seem to foster good writing. They're not so interested in that, but they're more interested in what worked most recently. They're definitely very serious about making money, and that's not a wrong thing, but you don't have to make money the same way all the time.”

Way Writing Seems Serious Studios Making Money Wrong Things Good Writing

Author:Bill Murray

“Good writing is like a windowpane.”

Writing Thrive Good Writing Windowpane

Author:George Orwell

“I've hung out in the writer's room a few times, but the fact is we've got such a good writing staff, I don't want to get my peanut butter fingerprints on anything.”

Want Writing Facts Rooms Hung Staff Peanuts Good Writing Peanut Butter Fingerprints

Author:Patton Oswalt

“As an actor, my main focus is finding good writing and attacking a good role.”

Writing Actors Roles Focus Findings Attacking Good Writing

Author:Amanda Peet

“I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word [...] - a jouuuuuurney.”

Writing Character Interesting Journey Good Writing Interesting Characters Overused

Author:Alan Rickman

“The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.”

Giving Writing Important Understanding Important Things Vocabulary Good Writing

Author:J. K. Rowling

“What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.”

Inspirational Writing Book Creative Writing Good Writing Good Writers Good Authors

Author:Logan Pearsall Smith

“Write for yourself, not for a perceived audience. If you do, you'll mostly fall flat on your face, because it's impossible to judge what people want. And you have to read. That's how you learn what is good writing and what is bad. Then the main thing is application. It's hard work.”

People Ifs Want Writing Hard Faces Fall Audience Impossible Judging Hard Work Flats Your Face Application Good Writing

Author:Wilbur Smith

“Good writing is good writing, but that doesn't mean you can't orchestrate it or tweak it.”

Writing Mean Good Writing Tweak

Author:John Travolta

“A young writer is easily tempted by the allusive and ethereal and ironic and reflective, but the declarative is at the bottom of most good writing.”

Writing Young Bottom Ironic Tempted Good Writing Young Writers Ethereal

Author:Garrison Keillor

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.”

“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.”

Writing Book Written Produce Theme Writing Advice Good Writing Good Writers Writers And Writing Book Writing Fleas Writing By Writers Creativity And Writing Writing From Famous Authors Writing Short Short Writing Good Authors

Author:Herman Melville

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”

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

“the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat”

Writing Humans Heart Problem Conflict Sweat Agony Human Heart Good Writing

Author:William Faulkner

“Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's.”

Writing Simple Metaphor Premises Good Writing

Book:The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

Source: The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

“My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.”

Way Writing Gratitude Ocean Grateful Good Writing

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

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

“Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.”

People Ifs Writing Trying Persons Hard Whole Writing Life Good Writing Great Writing Trying So Hard Chandeliers

Book:The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

Source: The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

“I Need a Good Book I need a good story. I need a good book. The kind that explodes Off the shelf. I need some good writing, Alive and exciting, To contemplate all by myself. I need a good novel, I need a good read. I probably need Two or three. I need a good tale Of love and betrayal Or perhaps an adventure at sea. I need a good saga. I need a good yarn. A momentous and mightily Or slight one. But with thousands and thousands And thousands of books, I need someone to tell me The right one. -John Lithgow”

Needs Writing Kind Two Book Stories Three Novel Alive Sea Adventure Exciting Betrayal Tales Contemplating Shelves Good Book Good Story Good Writing Saga Yarn Good Reads Love And Betrayal

Author:John Lithgow

“The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.”

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

“The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.”

Ifs Writing Age Literature Products Bunch Dull Neurosis Good Writing Young Writers

Book:Conversations with William Styron

Source: Conversations with William Styron

“To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. That’s just the act of all good writing.”

World Writing Real Whole Seems Whole World Good Writing Polymaths

Author:William Gibson

“Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader's mind - -vividly, forcefully.”

Writing Mind Happens Clear Reader Errors Things Happen Energetic Good Writing Make Things Happen

Book:About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, & Five Interviews

Source: About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, & Five Interviews

“Good writing is good conversation, only more so.”

Writing Conversation Good Writing Good Conversation

Author:Ernest Hemingway

“Good writing takes place at intersections, at what you might call knots, at places where the society is snarled or knotted up.”

Writing Might Knots Good Writing Intersections

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything really good.”

“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head.”

Thinking Giving Writing Doe Success Ability Failing Communication Succeed Glimpse Make You Think Good Writing

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going, & it smells good. Writing is mere writing, literature is mere. It appeals only to the subtlest senses—the imagination’s vision, & the imagination’s hearing—& the moral sense, & the intellect. This writing that you do, that so thrills you, that so rocks & exhilarates you, as if you were dancing next to the band, is barely audible to anyone else.”

People Ifs Writing Next Literature Imagination Moral Vision Written Blood Rocks Band Weak Dancing Mere Hearing Intellect Smell Senses Appeals Good Writing Written Word

Author:Annie Dillard

“Good writing is good writing. In many ways, it’s the audience and their expectations that define a genre. A reader of literary fiction expects the writing to illuminate the human condition, some aspect of our world and our role in it. A reader of genre fiction likes that, too, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the story.”

World Way Writing Humans Long Stories Fiction Roles Audience Conditions Reader Expectations Aspect Likes Genre Our World Human Condition Good Writing

Author:Rosemary Clement-Moore

“Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.”

Writing Air Rain Good Writing Good Rain

Book:The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life

Source: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.”

Needs Writing Firsts Voice Effort Terrible Quiet Paper I've Learned Good Writing Voices In My Head

Author:Anne Lamott

“I had the most incredible English and literature teachers in school, and it really influenced my love of storytelling. It's what made me excited to study journalism in college. I love editorials and documentaries. All of that came from being given the opportunity to lose myself in good writing when I was a kid.”

Writing Made Kids School Literature Opportunity Given Loses Study Teacher College Incredibles Excited Storytelling Journalism Documentaries Good Writing Editorials

Author:Sophia Bush

“I always tell my writing students that every good piece of writing begins with both a mystery and a love story. And that every single sentence must be a poem. And that economy is the key to all good writing. And that every character has to have a secret.”

Writing Character Stories Secret Economy Pieces Mystery Students Keys Sentences Love Story Good Writing Single Sentence

Author:Silas House

“Nothing frustrates me more than someone who reads something of mine or anyone else's and says, angrily, 'I don't buy it.' Why are they angry? Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head—even if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be.”

Ifs Thinking Giving Writing Doe Ends Ability Failing Mines Succeed Angry Glimpse Make You Think Good Writing

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear. If the writing is good, then the result seems effortless and inevitable. But when you want to say something life-changing or ineffable in a single sentence, you face both the limitations of the sentence itself and the extent of your own talent.”

“There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good reader.”

Way Writing Reader Best Way Good Writing

Author:Stephen Ambrose