“I think the most important thing is just to write. It sounds so simple, but sometimes it's not. You can get so distracted - -by having to work other jobs, or what other people have to say about your writing - -but the one thing that really matters is that you just keep going, especially when you're working on a novel. It's so easy to get discouraged and give up.” PeopleThinkingGivingWritingImportantSometimesMatterJobsEasySoundSimpleNovelOne ThingGiving UpImportant ThingsKeep GoingDiscouragedDistractedEasy To Get Author:Sarah Dessen
“I honestly don't have many creative outlets. I'm not crafty - although motherhood has forced me to try to be - and I can only draw trees, beaches, and clouds. I'm a so-so cook except for deviled eggs. Writing has always been the one thing I feel that I am pretty good at doing. But it's enough, thank goodness.” FeelsWritingTryingI CanEnoughCreativeOne ThingTreeGoodnessDrawsCloudsMotherhoodHonestlyCooksBeachEggsOutletsCraftyI Am PrettyCreative Outlets Author:Sarah Dessen
“I like the idea of becoming [fairly] good at lots of things rather than very good at just one thing. So it would be nice to be okay at the guitar or at the piano, a reasonable cook, perhaps able to fix your car or do some basic carpentry, and be able to write the odd article. Rather than being super good at one tiny thing, to be kind of average at lots of things. It might mean that you have a more kind of enjoyable, complete life.” WritingKindMeanIdeasMightWould BeAbleNiceOne ThingCarBecomingOkayGuitarVery GoodAverageTinyCooksOddPianoJust OneReasonableBe KindArticlesBeing NiceEnjoyableCarpentryTiny ThingsComplete Life Author:Tom Hodgkinson
“I had wanted for so many years to feel that writing really was at the center of my life, not something I did in my spare time. So the writing and teaching feel in some way to be one thing - the personal engagement and the social engagement good partners.” WayFeelsWritingYearsWantedSocialOne ThingTeachingPartnersEngagementSparesSpare Time Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“The process for writing a picture book is completely different from the process of writing a chapter book or novel. For one thing, most of my picture books rhyme. Also, when I write a picture book I'm always thinking about the role the pictures will play in the telling of the story. It can take me several months to write a picture book, but it takes me several years to write a novel.” ThinkingWritingYearsBookDifferentPlayStoriesProcessRolesNovelOne ThingMonthsTake MeChaptersRhymeAlways ThinkingPicture Books Author:Sarah Weeks
“Sometimes with certain writing, you feel like you've got to be literal, hit it hard on the nose, just to get the point across. Good writing is more subversive I think - or good scenes. They are about one thing on the page but you can make it about something completely different.” ThinkingFeelsWritingDifferentSometimesHardCertainOne ThingLike YouScenePagesNosesLiteralGood WritingSubversive Author:Chace Crawford
“I think we do live in a very specialized society, where once you think about somebody as one thing, it's hard to change that. But I do a lot of things. I act, I write, I sing.” ThinkingWritingHardOne Thing Author:Molly Ringwald
“One thing I like about writing is that it provides such a wonderful opportunity for confidential chats with readers. In the privacy of writing, and reading, we can discuss topics that are a little touchy, a bit embarrassing, and feel less alone in the process. Feeling consumed by memories from high school. Feeling wimpy. Feeling time-obsessed. Yearning for our fathers. Wishing we were taller, or shorter, or less average. To name just a few.” FeelsWritingLittlesFeelingsSchoolReadingFatherOpportunityNamesWishBitsProcessMemoriesWonderfulOne ThingReaderHigh SchoolAverageObsessedPrivacyYearningTopicsEmbarrassingConsumedOur FatherWriting And ReadingConfidentialTouchy Author:Ralph Keyes
“The one thing that does happen, every time, though, is that I never get to write a book until I've already been thinking about it for a period of months to years.” ThinkingWritingYearsDoeBookHappensOne ThingMonthsPeriods Author:Charles Stross
“I would not recommend poetry as a career. In the first place, it's impossible in this time and place - in this culture - to make poetry a career. The writing of poetry is one thing. It's an obsession, the scratching of a divine itch, and has nothing to do with money. You can, however, make a career out of being a poet by teaching, traveling around, and giving lectures. It's a thin living at best.” GivingWritingFirstsCultureCareersImpossibleOne ThingTeachingDivinePoetObsessionPoetry IsLectures Author:Maxine Kumin
“There is so much about the process of writing that is mysterious to me, but this one thing I've found to be true: writing begets writing.” WritingFoundProcessOne ThingBeing TrueMysteriousBegets Author:Dorianne Laux
“I'm pretty hardcore. I stick exactly to what I'm doing. So I write a novel in one period, and then I'll write stories in another period. I only work on one thing at once, because I'm afraid that I wouldn't finish what I'd started.” WritingStoriesNovelOne ThingPeriodsSticksHardcore Author:T.C. Boyle
“I talk about myself. That's what I am. I'm a blogger. I have always decided that I was going to be an expert on one thing, and I am an expert on this person, and so I write about it.” WritingPersonsOne ThingDecidedExpertsBloggers Author:Mena Grabowski Trott
“Songwriting is never one thing. I've spent as long as three months writing a song. Other times I've done it in twenty minutes.” WritingLongDoneSongThreeOne ThingMinutesMonthsTwentiesSongwritingThree Months Author:Greg Lake
“Writing is one thing and knowledge is another. Writing is the photographing of knowledge, but it is not knowledge itself. Knowledge is a light which is within man. It is the heritage of all the ancestors knew and have transmitted to us as seed, just as the mature baobab is contained in its seed.” MenWritingLightOne ThingSeedsMatureHeritageAncestorSelf Knowledge Author:Amadou Hampate Ba
“One thing I've found that I can do that I really enjoy is rereading my own writing, earlier stories and novels especially. It induces mental time travel, the same way certain songs you hear on the radio do ... the whole thing returns, an eerie feeling that I'm sure you've experienced.” WayWritingI CanWholeStoriesFeelingsCertainSongFoundEnjoyCan DoMy OwnNovelOne ThingReturnRadioTime TravelEerieRereading Author:Philip K. Dick
“One thing we do really well on Archer and one thing I've always tried to do in my comedy and my writing and my podcast is to never speak down to my audience.” WritingWellsSpeakAudienceComedyOne ThingArcher Author:Aisha Tyler
“I can be completely indulgent and spend as many hours and days or weeks as I like on one thing. Writing music and sitting in my studio, just pottering with ideas, it's a lot more personal and creative for me, I don't feel restricted.” FeelsWritingI CanIdeasHoursCreativeOne ThingWeekSittingStudiosWriting Music Author:Guy Pearce
“The one thing I've learned in the last ten years is that successful artists don't get paid to write and sing songs, they get paid for the psychological roller coaster they're going to have to ride. That's the hard work.” WritingYearsHardLastsArtistSongSuccessfulOne ThingHard WorkTenPaidPsychologicalI've LearnedRoller CoasterCoastersThings I've LearnedSuccessful Artists Author:Enrique Iglesias
“I was left with myself and had to do the one thing I could to survive. I knew it would be difficult to write, very difficult, but I set about doing it.” WritingWould BeLeftDifficultOne Thing Author:Frederick Seidel
“I never smoke grass and drive my car because, for one thing, no matter how many letters I write to the road commissions, they still refuse to start designing highways with second-chance exits.” WritingStillsMatterChanceOne ThingCarDesignLettersRefuseSmokeGrassHighwaysSecond ChanceExit Book:The Marijuana-logues: Everything About Pot That We Could Remember Source: The Marijuana-logues: Everything About Pot That We Could Remember
“If I had to write a rough draft, all the way through and then go back and start over, I probably would just stop writing. I wouldn't find that interesting. I would feel that I had committed so many things to the paper that I couldn't easily undo because one thing leads to the next, the interconnectedness, the sequences would make it very hard to change something that simply didn't work.” IfsWayFeelsWritingHardNextInterestingOne ThingPaperCommittedRoughSequenceStarting OverInterconnectednessRough Drafts Author:Dean Koontz
“I've been Catholic all my life, and there's one thing I've never understood. Why didn't the Corinthians write back?” WritingOne ThingUnderstoodCatholicCorinthians Author:Tommy Lasorda
“You can write a 1st paragraph that continues the same thought you expressed in your headline. If you stop a reader with a headline about house paint, you can be sure of at least one thing about that reader: He wants more info about house paint. You will not lose him as long as you continue to give him what he wants.” IfsWantGivingWritingLongHouseLosesOne ThingReaderPaintHeadlinesParagraph Author:John Caples
“I am committed now to one thing: lyric sequences. I want the intensity of lyric, but the scope and arc of narrative. so, I think I'll just write sequences for the foreseeable (the Beloved sequence doesn't have a 'plot' so I can just keep adding poems to it, it's like a giant bag I can just put beloved lyrics into - I think there are about 300 of them i've published by now).” ThinkingWantWritingI CanOne ThingCommittedNarrativeBelovedGiantsBagsPlotIntensityScopeSequenceArcs Author:Gregory Orr
“People in Israel would write in a high register, they wouldn't write colloquial speech. I do a special take on colloquial speech. When I started writing, I thought [the language] was telling the story of this country: old people in a young nation, very religious, very conservative, very tight-assed, but also very anarchistic, very open-minded. It's all in the language, and that's one thing that doesn't translate.” PeopleWritingCountryStoriesYoungLanguageNationsReligiousOne ThingSpecialSpeechConservativeIsraelTranslateOld PeopleOpen MindedRegister Author:Etgar Keret
“I could never do just one thing, but everything I do is in the direction of stories. Sometimes writing them, sometimes showcasing them, sometimes letting people see them.” PeopleWritingSometimesStoriesOne ThingJust One Author:Damian Barr
“I write two hours in the morning and two hours before bed no matter. No matter what. I also write during the day if I have to get something down, but the four hours a day is the one thing in my life I don't fool with.” IfsWritingTwoMatterHoursMorningFourOne ThingFoolBedNo Matter What Author:Kiese Laymon
“I know that a lot of songwriters write about a break up. It's a really popular topic. I think heartbreak is the number one thing people write about. I could say that's narcissistic somehow because they want everybody to admire how pained they are. But I actually do think there's something beautiful and uplifting about knowing that you're not the only one who is experiencing or has experienced that kind of devastating loss. Everyone's experienced that.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantWritingKindBeautifulLossNumbersBreakKnowingOne ThingAdmireUpliftingSongwritersTopicsNarcissisticSomething BeautifulReally PopularDevastating Loss Author:Mirah
“One thing I have a tendency to do is not write choruses, or write choruses that have different words. The first chorus will have different words than the second chorus.” WritingFirstsDifferentOne ThingTendenciesChorus Author:Craig Finn
“I knew that I was writing for an American audience and that if I sold foreign rights, they would retranslate the book to make it make sense to that language. But one thing that was really important to me was not to italicize any of the words in the languages that were in the stories, because I feel like those foreign words felt just as important and integral to the story as everything else, so I wanted it all to just exist as its own thing.” IfsFeelsWritingImportantBookStoriesWantedLanguageFeltAudienceRightsOne ThingMake Sense Author:Molly Antopol
“It's one thing to write the music, it's another thing to write it down, it's another thing to play it, and something else altogether again to learn how to play it. These are the elements that are fascinating, and, you know, move my world.” KnowsWorldWritingPlayMovingOne ThingElementsFascinating Author:Gail Zappa
“I want my music to be something that people use in order to access parts of themselves. So in that sense, every piece I write is about all emotions at once, about the lines in between. It's never only about one thing or another. It's emotionally getting at those things that we can't really describe - things for which we don't have labels. So yes, it's about something, and it has a use. It's neither about nothing nor about something concrete - it's about what you bring to it as a listener.” PeopleWantWritingUseOrderLinesEmotionPiecesOne ThingAccessLabelsConcreteListeners Author:Missy Mazzoli
“One thing about having mostly absent parents that I think was perhaps "good" for the development of my intellect/writing is that I was given almost total freedom to read/write/look at whatever I wanted. I wonder a lot about how my past experiences, particularly my negative childhood (home life and being severely bullied/ostracized throughout school) as formed my/my thoughts/my writing, though I should also note those things were far from the only thing that had an impact on me/my writing.” ThinkingShouldWritingLooksHomeWantedSchoolPastGivenParentWonderOne ThingChildhoodDevelopmentNegativeImpactNotesIntellectMy ThoughtsAbsentMy PastBulliedPast ExperiencesHome LifeFreedom To ReadChildhood Home Author:Marie Calloway
“I am very active on Twitter and one thing that keeps popping up is "How do I balance having a kid and writing?" And I know it should not be as aggravating, but I know no one ever asks a male writer that. Or, any male that.” KnowsShouldWritingKidsAsksOne ThingBalanceMalesActivePoppingAggravating Author:Celeste Ng