“As a young victim of bullying and then, later, a vindictive perpetrator of violence myself, I've known both sides of this experience, and I tried very hard in the writing here to be as absolutely honest as I possibly could, to not romanticize myself or my past actions or cowardly inactions in any way.” WayWritingHardActionPastYoungSidesKnownViolenceHonestVictimBullyingBoth SidesInactionMy PastCowardlyPerpetratorsVindictive Author:Andre Dubus
“There's a long-standing (50 year old) flame war within the field over whether it's "sci-fi" or "SF".SF has traditionally been looked down on by the literary establishment because, to be honest, much early SF was execrably badly written - but these days the significance of the pigeon hole is fading; we have serious mainstream authors writing stuff that is I-can't-believe-it's-not-SF, and SF authors breaking into the mainstream. If you view them as tags that point to shelves in bricks-and-mortar bookshops, how long are these genre categories going to survive in the age of the internet?” IfsWritingYearsBelieveLongI CanWarAgeStuffViewsWrittenHonestFieldsSeriousInternetStandingHolesBeing HonestThese DaysGenreFlamesSignificanceCategoriesSci FiEstablishmentMainstreamShelvesBricksTagFadingPigeonsBookshopsMortarBricks And Mortar Author:Charles Stross
“I don't know if I could write songs if it wasn't for the female race, to be honest with you.” IfsKnowsWritingSongRaceHonestFemaleBeing HonestIf I Could Author:Christian Kane
“The whole process of music for me is something absolutely honest and really naked and bare, so I never forced myself to write in French.” WritingWholeProcessHonestNaked Author:Lou Doillon
“When I have my Afro and walk down the street, there's no doubt that I'm black. With this [straightened] hair, if I talk about being black on air, viewers write and say, "You're black?!" I feel [straightening your hair] is giving up a sense of your identity. Let's be honest: It's an effort to look Anglo-Saxon.” IfsGivingFeelsWritingLooksBlackWalksEffortDoubtAirStreetsHonestIdentityHairGiving UpBeing HonestNo DoubtViewersAfrosAnglo Saxon Author:Jami Floyd
“If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair.” IfsThinkingWantWritingHonestFairsUnfairJournal Author:Madeleine L'Engle
“The more I think about our species the more I think we just do stuff and make up explanations later when asked. But it's not true that I would rather write than read. I would rather read than write. To be honest I would rather hang upside down in a bucket than write.” ThinkingWritingStuffHonestSpeciesBeing HonestExplanationUpside DownBuckets Author:Douglas Adams
“I look at the film without any music or sound. I try to grasp the story from the screenplay. I try to write to the novel or book if there is one. I try to create music that's honest and true to my heart for the story.” IfsWritingTryingLooksHeartBookStoriesFilmSoundNovelHonestMy HeartScreenplays Author:Howard Shore
“Gandhi was only minding his own business when he took a walk to get some salt and ended up overthrowing the British Empire. You can't set out to overthrow an empire, but if you have to get some salt then get some salt. If you have to write some independent songs that are honest, just write them. If you have to do a day job stacking shelves, so be it.” IfsWritingJobsSongWalksHonestIndependentBritishEmpiresSaltShelvesOwn BusinessBritish EmpireDay JobsStacking Author:David Knopfler
“I try to be very honest in my writing. It's amazing, though, to think that people are responding to what we do, but it's okay if they're responding in a positive way too, because I think just creating anything at all to put out there is a gift.” PeopleIfsThinkingWayWritingTryingHonestCreatingOkayResponding Author:Tavi Gevinson
“With writing, I think you have to be honest with yourself. I have a certain kind of writing; that is, I like to really embellish the human spirit. You have to write about something you have a feel for.” ThinkingFeelsWritingHumansKindSpiritCertainHonestBeing HonestHuman SpiritHonest With YourselfBe Honest With Yourself Author:Sylvester Stallone
“I'm more honest in my lyrics than I am in anything else. It's where I feel the most safe to express myself. I write about growing up, my family, Maddie and getting pregnant. If I've lived it, why wouldn't I talk about it? I guess that's been the coolest thing - realizing that it's OK to just be myself and really tell my story.” IfsFeelsWritingStoriesRealizingGrowing UpGrowingHonestSafeMy FamilyPregnant Author:Jamie Lynn Spears
“I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was.” PeopleWritingRealSongStuffInterestingHonestCome UpSongwritingSongwritersWriting Songs Author:John Prine
“You know, I began my life as a creative person writing true things for magazines and telling some very honest, straightforward personal essaying for This American Life, but until someone forces you, with a deadline, to really observe your life - unless you're motivated to do it yourself - there's so many stories that you miss.” KnowsWritingPersonsStoriesForceCreativeHonestMissingMagazinesMotivatedStraightforwardDeadlineAmerican LifeCreative PersonDo It YourselfTrue Things Author:John Hodgman
“I suppose we think euphemistically that all writers write because they have something to say that is truthful and honest and pointed and important. And I suppose I subscribe to that, too. But God knows when I look back over thirty years of professional writing, I'm hard-pressed to come up with anything that's important. Some things are literate, some things are interesting, some things are classy, but very damn little is important.” ThinkingKnowsWritingYearsLooksLittlesImportantHardInterestingHonestCome UpDamnThirtyTruthfulGod KnowsThirty YearsProfessional Writing Author:Rod Serling
“To be quite honest, along with thinking and such when it comes to writing, I'm not into words like "theory." I'm a PhD dropout. No matter how many twenty-five-page papers I wrote, I never felt like I was saying much. I didn't feel like the writer of the book, whose work I was analyzing, would have been impressed. It didn't matter how much time or effort I put in.” ThinkingFeelsWritingHas BeensBookMatterFeltEffortFiveHonestTheoryPaperPagesTwentiesImpressedPapersTwenty FiveAnalyzingPhdsDropouts Author:Mary J. Miller
“I guess I don't really know any other way to do it, it just feels like the natural way to do things for me. Like - if I'm writing a song - it has to have some sort of value. Or it only has some kind of value to me, if it's something really personal. It has to mean something to me. I guess it is a little uncomfortable, or it's a little embarrassing sometimes, to know that stuff that honest is out there. But, when I hand off the thing, when it's totally done and mastered and sent, I kinda feel like it doesn't belong to me anymore.” IfsKnowsWayFeelsWritingKindMeanLittlesSometimesDoneHandsValuesSongStuffNaturalHonestUncomfortableEmbarrassing Author:Panda Bear
“To be honest I'd just love to keep writing hits for other people... That's kind of my secret dream.” PeopleWritingKindDreamSecretHonestBeing Honest Author:Charli XCX
“I made a conscious decision when I was writing that book to depict in real time how I treated it, and how I thought about it, and how I portrayed it to other people, because I wanted the story to be one of change from that to a more honest appraisal, a more accepting appraisal of myself and other people in that world.” PeopleWorldWritingMadeBookRealStoriesWantedDecisionAcceptingHonestConsciousTreatedAppraisal Author:Melissa Febos
“I knew what I didn't want, and I knew whatever it was going to be it had to be believable and it had to come from me and I had to drive it. The way I write is very honest and when I think of the music that I listened to growing up, I loved it because I believed it.” ThinkingWayWantWritingGrowing UpGrowingHonestBelievable Author:Ella Henderson
“I don't have much to say about honesty. All that I feel about it that people don't discuss as far as I know is how much effort it is to create truly honest writing, in my opinion. It requires a lot of thinking and effort.” PeopleThinkingKnowsFeelsWritingEffortOpinionHonestHonesty Author:Marie Calloway
“Well we never set out to write a concept album. I've always used song writing as a therapeutic release so in that process, I just do my best to be honest with myself and look inside myself and whatever comes out usually just reflects or depicts what I'm going through in my life at that time.” WritingWellsLooksUsedSongProcessHonestConceptsAlbumsReleaseBeing HonestTherapeutic Author:Chuck Ragan
“I think expression is at it's best when it comes from an honest place, so I always try to use my own life experiences, feelings, struggles, frustrations etc. as the catalyst for my song writing.” ThinkingWritingTryingUseFeelingsSongMy OwnStruggleHonestExpressionFrustrationEtcLife ExperienceMy Own LifeCatalyst Author:Kate Brown
“I think it's good to have a balance. Everything I write about, it's not something I necessarily might have went through, there's songs where I might have an idea, sometimes it might be a melody or something that I like, I make up a story to go with that melody. But I do think it's most important to have honest songs.” ThinkingWritingImportantIdeasSometimesStoriesMightSongHonestBalanceMelody Author:Leon Bridges
“I think I'm just trying to be myself and write songs that are honest. That's what I hear in artist's that I like.” ThinkingWritingTryingArtistSongHonest Author:Michael Gungor
“I realized I was never going to have any peace with myself unless I made an honest stab at trying to write.” WritingTryingMadeHonestI Realized Author:Ben Fountain
“I want to do a stripped-down album. That style is actually where my heart is - storytelling and just letting the voice and the lyrics talk for themselves. I still want to write the perfect song and sing it in the most honest, undressed way. But I feel like I have to gather more experiences and more layers in my voice. I have to live more to be able to tell this tale. So I'm saving my folk record. I have a feeling nobody will understand it.” WayWantFeelsWritingHeartStillsFeelingsAbleSongVoicePerfectRecordsHonestStyleMy HeartFolksAlbumsTalesStorytellingSavingLayers Author:Lykke Li
“My own view is simply that there are some very basic rules; very simple rules that apply to all writing in a way, which is: don't lie; if you're wrong, correct; do not misrepresent; and try and keep oneself intellectually honest - which means, as a writer, the very difficult task in public of admitting you were wrong.” IfsWayWritingTryingMeanLyingDifficultMy OwnSimpleViewsHonestTasksOneselfAdmittingDon't LieDifficult Tasks Author:Andrew Sullivan
“What I write is emotionally honest and truthful as the human experience can be, to make people feel less alone, or at least that's the hope.” PeopleFeelsWritingHumansHonestTruthfulHuman Experience Author:Mike Birbiglia
“To be honest, I don't know. I started one [book] back in 1982 or '83 when I first retired. But I was only 25 or 26 and not ready to write my memoirs.” KnowsWritingFirstsBookHonestReadyMemoirBeing HonestRetiredNot Ready Author:Sugar Ray Leonard
“I thought if I was open and honest, it would help the reader to get open and honest, and they also would realize sometimes when you write a book, people think you're an expert and that's not always true.” PeopleIfsThinkingWritingBookSometimesHelpingRealizingHonestReaderExperts Author:John C. Maxwell
“I considered writing a book too, but I think people don't like to read, to be honest - they want to watch. People want to see crazy things, so we decided to make a film ["Selling Isobel"] instead.” PeopleThinkingWantWritingBookFilmWatchesCrazyHonestDecidedSellingBeing HonestWriting A BookCrazy Things Author:Frida Farrell
“A lot of the people involved in the media are very serious, honest people, and they will tell you, and I think they are right, that they are not being forced to write anything... What they don't tell you, and are maybe unaware of, is that they are allowed to write freely because their beliefs conform to the... standard doctrinal system, and then, yes, they are allowed to write freely and are not coerced.” PeopleThinkingWritingBeliefHonestMediaSeriousInvolvedStandardsConformHonest People Author:Noam Chomsky
“A lot of the people involved in the media are very serious, honest people, and they will tell you, and I think they are right, that they are not being forced to write anything.” PeopleThinkingWritingHonestMediaSeriousInvolvedHonest People Author:Noam Chomsky
“I'm in an odd position because I write across so many genres for so many people and they all influence me, and if I'm going to write as honest an album as possible, it's going to be layered.” PeopleIfsWritingInfluenceHonestPositionAlbumsGenreOdd Author:Ryan Tedder
“In the Making Of book ["300"] there's a guy named Victor Davis Hanson who is a a frickin genius. He's a Greek historian and we showed him the movie because I wanted him to write a forward to the Making Of book. I was a little nervous to be honest, because I wasn't sure how he'd react.” WritingLittlesBookWantedGuyHonestGeniusNervousBeing HonestGreekHistorian Author:Zack Snyder
“Being honest...[to reporters] Not the worst thing in the world. Don't write that down.” WorldWritingWorstHonestBeing HonestReportersWorst Things Author:Mandy Moore