Best literature & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book.”

Thinking Writing Looks May Book Ends Literature Goal Perfect Paper Pages Perfection Unattainable May Not Be Perfect

Author:Laurell K. Hamilton

“One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane.”

Ifs Writing Turns Literature Magic Tricks Magician Mundane

Author:Laurell K. Hamilton

“I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people's writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people's fiction. Just don't.”

People Writing Literature Fiction Fantasy Objects Horror Research Science Fiction Non Fiction

Author:Laurell K. Hamilton

“I do not write for the public. You are my public and I hope to convert you.”

Writing Poetry Literature

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Illustrated)

“Increasingly, those who used to teach and write critical or theoretical texts are writing fiction, poetry and so on; and kinds of texts are being produced that call for budding readers rather different from those who studied literature in the past.”

Writing Kind Different Past Used Poetry Literature Fiction Teach Reader Critical Theoretical Writing Fiction

Author:Nicholas Royle

“Baudelaire's L'Héautontimorouménos was long seen to be a sexual sadomasochistic poem, it is now generally accepted that the poem is about writing poetry.”

Writing Long Poetry Literature Accepted Writing Poetry Baudelaire

Book:Next Word, Better Word: The Craft of Writing Poetry

Source: Next Word, Better Word: The Craft of Writing Poetry

“Poetry and code - and mathematics - make us read differently from other forms of writing. Written poetry makes the silent reader read three kinds of pattern at once; code moves the reader from a static to an active, interactive and looped domain; while algebraic topology allows us to read qualitative forms and their transformations.”

Writing Kind Moving Form Poetry Three Literature Written Reader Transformation Mathematics Silent Patterns Active Code Domain Static Interactive Qualitative Topology

Author:Stephanie Strickland

“In description we hear and feel the absorption of the author in the material. We sense the presence of the creator of the scene. .. This personal absorption is what we mean by 'style.' It is strange that we would choose so oddly surfacey a word - style - for this most soulful aspect of writing. We could, perhaps more exactly, call this relation between consciousness and its subject 'integrity.' What else is the articulation of perception?”

Feels Writing Mean Poetry Literature Consciousness Subjects Style Strange Materials Integrity Scene Perception Aspect Relation Creator Description Soulful Absorption Articulation

Author:Patricia Hampl

“The idea that a student can write a sonnet or a novel without having a sound understanding about its history, and where it fits into literature as a whole, seems to me to be manifestly daft.”

Writing Ideas Whole Seems Poetry Literature Understanding Sound Novel Students Fit Sonnet Daft

Author:Nicholas Royle

“Write, form a rhizome, increase your territory by deterritorialization, extend the line of flight to the point where it becomes an abstract machine covering the entire plane of consistency.”

Writing Form Poetry Literature Lines Machines Increase Flight Planes Abstract Territory Consistency Covering

Book:EPZ Thousand Plateaus

Source: EPZ Thousand Plateaus

“In this world that we live in we have originality in literature, but we also have TV and movies. I write love stories. I could never write a love story based on the Titanic - that was never a novel. If I see an idea that's been done in film, I try to avoid that.”

Ifs World Writing Trying Ideas Done Stories Film Literature Novel This World Tvs Love Story Originality

Author:Nicholas Sparks

“The attraction of horror is a mental, or even an intellectual, excitement, but the fascination of the repulsive, so noticeable incontemporary writing, can spring openly from some rotted substance within our civilization.”

Writing Literature Civilization Horror Intellectual Spring Attraction Substance Excitement Fascination Decadence

Author:Ellen Glasgow

“When I read, it is not acted literature; but what I write is written acting.”

Writing Reading Literature Acting Written

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“The last publicized center of American writing was Manhattan. Its writers became known as the New York Intellectuals. With important connections to publishing, and universities, with access to the major book reviews, they were able to pose as the vanguard of American culture when they were so obsessed with the two Joes--McCarthy and Stalin--that they were to produce only two artists, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, who left town.”

Source: God made Alaska for the Indians: selected essays

“A curious thing about written literature: It is about four thousand years old, but we have no way of knowing whether four thousand years constitutes senility or the maiden blush of youth.”

Way Writing Years Literature Knowing Four Written Youth Thousand Curious Thousand Years Maidens Senility

Author:John Barth

“I cherish the review-as-literature; as lapidary journalism in the eighteenth-century mode, the last hard sparkling diamond in theessayists's tarnished crown. To me, writing a good review is not just a way to make extra money, but a sacred duty.”

Way Writing Hard Lasts Literature Century Duty Sacred Journalism Extras Cherish Reviews Diamond Crowns Sparkling

Author:Florence King

“How is it possible on the one hand, for example, to behave as if nothing on earth were more important than literature, and on the other fail to see that wherever one looks, people are struggling against hunger and will necessarily consider that the most important thing is what they earn at the end of the month? Because this is where he (the writer) is confronted with a new paradox: while all he wanted was to write for those who are hungry, he now discovers that it is only those who have plenty to eat who have the leisure to take notice of his existence.”

People Ifs Writing Looks Important Ends Hands Wanted Earth Literature Existence Struggle Failing Example Months Important Things Hunger Hungry Plenty Behave Paradox Leisure

Author:Stig Dagerman

“Mr. Beerbohm in his way is perfect ... He has brought personality into literature, not unconsciously and impurely, but so consciously and purely that we do not know whether there is any relation between Max the essayist and Mr. Beerbohm the man. We only know that the spirit of personality permeates every word that he writes ... He is without doubt the prince of his profession.”

Knows Men Way Writing Spirit Literature Perfect Doubt He Man Personality Relation Profession Max Essayists

Author:Virginia Woolf

“Every reader of the Dreiser novels must cherish astounding specimens--of awkward, platitudinous marginalia, of whole scenes spoiled by bad writing, of phrases as brackish as so many lumps of sodium hyposulphite.”

Writing Whole Literature Novel Reader Scene Phrases Cherish Awkward Spoiled Lumps American Literature Bad Writing Sodium

Book:A book of prefaces

Source: A book of prefaces

“Such is the art of writing as Dreiser understands it and practices it--an endless piling up of minutiae, an almost ferocious tracking down of ions, electrons and molecules, an unshakable determination to tell it all. One is amazed by the mole-like diligence of the man, and no less by his exasperating disregard for the ease of his readers.”

“Is it our job to judge? The gendarme, policemen and bureaucrats have been especially prepared by fate for that job. Our job is towrite, and only to write.”

Writing Has Beens Jobs Literature Fate Judging Prepared Policemen Bureaucrats

Author:Anton Chekhov

“The first forms of writing emerged not for art, literature, or love, not for spiritual or liturgical purposes, but for business--all literature could be said to originate from sales receipts (sorry).”

Writing Firsts Art Said Spiritual Form Purpose Literature Sorry Receipts

Book:The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

Source: The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

“German writings attain popularity through a great name, or through personalities, or through good connections, or through effort,or through moderate immorality, or through accomplished incomprehensibility, or through harmonious platitude, or through versatile boredom, or through constant striving after the absolute.”

Writing Literature Names Effort Personality Connections Absolutes Constant Strive Boredom Accomplished Popularity Moderates Harmonious Immorality Platitudes Versatile

Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

“Over and over again women and men ... come to me saying, I don't know enough to write a book for adults, and so I'd like to try a book for children. And I tell them that when they have learned enough to write for an adult perhaps a child will listen to them.”

Knows Men Writing Trying Children Book Enough Literature Men And Women Adults Children's Literature Children Book

Book:Writing for Young People

Source: Writing for Young People

“The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.”

Writing Firsts Ends Literature Friendship Pleasure Sensible Cash Toil Family And Friends Gratification

Book:The house of the seven gables

Source: The house of the seven gables

“I probably spend more time writing than reading science fiction. I find that science-fiction literature is so reactive to all the literature that's gone before that it's sort of like a fractal. It's gone to a level of detail that the average person could not possibly follow unless you're a fan. It iterates upon many prior generations of iterations.”

Writing Persons Reading Literature Levels Fiction Gone Generations Fans Science Fiction Average Details More Time Average Person Fractals

Author:James Cameron

“Most British playwrights of my generation, as well as younger folks, apparently feel somewhat obliged to Russian literature - and not only those writing for theatres. Russian literature is part of the basic background knowledge for any writer. So there is nothing exceptional in the interest I had towards Russian literature and theatre. Frankly, I couldn't image what a culture would be like without sympathy towards Russian literature and Russia, whether we'd be talking about drama or Djagilev.”

“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”

Writing Sometimes Literature Rocks Crafts Drilling

Book:The Good Life According to Hemingway

Source: The Good Life According to Hemingway

“All our words from loose using have lost their edge.”

Writing Literature Lost Edges Afternoon Our Words Looseness

Book:The Hemingway Collection

Source: The Hemingway Collection

“Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.”

Writing Girl Literature Letters Fishes Shoulders Fishing Hunting Looking Back Fisherman Fly Fishing Angling Anglers Funny Fishing Hunting And Fishing Funny Fish

Book:Hemingway on Fishing

Source: Hemingway on Fishing

“Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.”

Ifs Writing Ends Enough Stories Death Literature Afternoon Storyteller True Story Farewell To Arms

Book:The Hemingway Collection

Source: The Hemingway Collection

“Terrence, the Roman slave who freed himself with his writings, once observed, "I am a human being. Nothing human is alien to me." That could be the motto of literature!”

Writing Humans Literature Human Beings Slave Aliens Motto

Author:Julia Alvarez

“If you look at the literature of the 19th century, you get things like Kafka and Dostoevsky, who basically write about feeling bored and alienated. That's because we lost contact with the important things in life like work that you enjoy, or the garden, nature, your family and friends.”

Ifs Writing Looks Important Feelings Literature Lost Enjoy Century Garden Important Things Contact Bored Our Family Things In Life Family And Friends 19th Century

Author:Tom Hodgkinson

“I write and read with the assumption that literature contains knowledge of human experience that is not available otherwise.”

Writing Humans Literature Available Assumption Human Experience

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“For a fight to be productive, or at least relevant, writers should fight over different demands they put upon writing (as an individual, private act) and literature (a network of relations in which we are all involved).”

Should Writing Different Fighting Literature Individual Involved Demand Relation Productive Relevant

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“A form of art that I like is portraiture. I've been thinking about portraiture, and its relationship to writing and literature, biography and autobiography, and so that will be my next thing.”

Thinking Writing Art Form Next Literature Autobiography Biographies Portraiture

Author:Robert Dessaix

“I think that literature quite often emerges from areas where there has been a lack of articulation, like women's writing.”

Thinking Writing Has Beens Literature Areas Articulation

Author:Edna Longley

“I don't see myself as a very important person. But I was the second woman to write a novel in Iran, and I have written most of the novels about Iranian women. In this way, maybe I have a good place in Iranian literature.”

Way Writing Persons Important Literature Novel Written Iran Iranian Good Place Important Person

Author:Shahrnush Parsipur

“I'm always loath to make generalizations about what is for children and what isn't. Certainly children's literature as a genre has some restrictions, so certain things will never pop up in a Snicket book. But I didn't know anything about writing for children when I started - this is the theme of naïveté creeping up on us once more - and I sort of still don't, and I'm happy that adults are reading them as well as children.”

Knows Writing Wells Children Stills Book Certain Reading Literature Adults Pops Genre Theme Restriction Generalization Vets Children's Literature Snicket

Author:Daniel Handler

“I believe the personal is the collective. One of the ironies of writing memoir is in using the "I" it becomes an alchemical "we." This is the sorcery of literature.”

Writing Believe Literature I Believe Memoir Irony Collectives Sorcery

Author:Terry Tempest Williams

“None of us older writers had gone through such a school. We are all self-taught. And, of course, there is always, in such a school, the danger of goose-stepping, uniformed ranks. But the Serapion Brethren have already, it seems to me, outgrown this danger. Each of them has his own individuality and his own handwriting. The common thing they have derived from the studio is the art of writing with ninety-proof ink, the art of eliminating everything that is superfluous, which is, perhaps, more difficult than writing.”

“In order to write about the machine you have to know it, to live with it, to love it (or hate it). I think that true writing could be done on industrial subjects by people who work in industry, who are firmly linked with it. But ... and here is the opposite 'but', the technology of literary craftsmanship is itself a very fine and complex matter. Qualified specialists from industry prove themselves dilettantes in the field of literature. The needed synthesis is not yet in sight.”

“Ways to be actively involved in the solution: 1. Consider adoption. 2. Be a regular giver of your money to Crisis Pregnancy Centers. 3. Volunteer in a Crisis Pregnancy Center. 4. Be involved in spreading truth with good literature. 5. Make your presence know at the abortion clinics in town (by) writing or phoning or visiting and talking, if you can, with those who work there. 6. Dream a new kind of ministry. 7. Pray!”

Ifs Knows Way Writing Kind Dream Literature Talking Praying Involved Solutions Towns Crisis Abortion Pregnancy Ministry Adoption Volunteer Giver Visiting Clinic Your Presence Good Literature

Author:John Piper

“The only reward to be expected from literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds.”

Ifs Writing Literature Failing Succeed Hatred Rewards Expected Contempt

Author:Voltaire

“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Book Ends Lasts Next Literature Mystery Middle Pages Sells Detective Fiction Letdowns

Author:Mickey Spillane

“I attempt to write a good novel. Whether it is literature or not is something that will be decided by the ages, not by me and not by a pack of critics around the globe.”

Writing Age Literature Novel Decided Critics Globes Packs

Author:Elizabeth George

“Writing is no dying art form in America because most published writers here accept the wisdom and the necessity of encouraging the talent that follows in their footsteps.”

Writing Art America Form Literature Accepting Dying Talent Footsteps Bedtime

Book:Write Away: One Writer's Approach to the Novel

Source: Write Away: One Writer's Approach to the Novel

“I find it both fascinating and disconcerting when I discover yet another person who believes that writing can't be taught. Frankly, I don't understand this point of view”

Writing Believe Persons Literature Views Taught Point Of View Fascinating

Book:Write Away: One Writer's Approach to the Novel

Source: Write Away: One Writer's Approach to the Novel

Literature Quotes

Related topics

Literature Quotes