Best practice & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Talent is required, but much of writing is a matter of craft, which develops with time, attention, patience and practice, like playing an instrument or learning to dance.”

Writing Matter Attention Practice Talent Instruments Crafts

Author:Susan Wiggs

“It is indeed acceptable practice to sometimes split an infinitive. If infinitive-splitting makes available just the shade of meaning you desire or if avoiding the separation creates a confusing ambiguity or patent artificiality, you are entitled to happily go ahead and split!”

Ifs Writing Sometimes Desire Practice Available Separation Shade Acceptable Splits Entitled Avoiding Confusing Ambiguity Patents Splitting Artificiality Infinitive

Book:Lederer on Language: A Celebration of English, Good Grammar, and Wordplay

Source: Lederer on Language: A Celebration of English, Good Grammar, and Wordplay

“I recognize this in my writing process. A consistent writing structure opens the door to amazing insights. I recognize the truth of this in my daily habits. When I set my keys in the place I, with practice, always set my keys... I do not lose them. In many instances an ordered external structure can be an invitation for an extraordinarily unfettered, creative and unbounded inner structure.”

Writing Process Loses Practice Creative Doors Keys Habit Structure Insight Instance Consistent Writing Process Invitations Daily Habits

Author:Mary Anne Radmacher

“Literature can teach us how to live before we live, and how to die before we die. I believe that writing is practice for death, and for every (other) transformation human beings encounter.”

Writing Believe Humans Dies Literature I Believe Human Beings Teach Practice Transformation Encounters

Author:Jayne Anne Phillips

“It is my entire visual art practice: I eat, sleep, think, write about and do drawing.”

Thinking Writing Art Sleep Practice Drawing Visuals Visual Art

Author:Deanna Petherbridge

“The different aspects of my activity, whether it's writing criticism, or doing visual work that incorporates writing, or teaching, or curating, is all of a single cloth, and I don't make any separation in terms of those practices.”

Writing Different Term Practice Teaching Activity Aspect Criticism Separation Visuals

Author:Barbara Kruger

“If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.”

Ifs Way Writing Practice Failing

Author:Gail Sher

“There are some who write, talk, and think, so much about vice and virtue, that they have no time to practice either the one or the other.”

Thinking Writing Practice Virtue Vices Vice And Virtue

Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think

Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think

“You've got to concentrate on the business of entertaining and writing songs. Always think different from the next person. Don't ever do a song as you heard somebody else do it.”

Thinking Writing Persons Different Song Next Practice Heard Entertaining Writing Songs Think Different

Author:Otis Redding

“The discourse on the Text should itself be nothing other than text, research, textual activity, since the Text is that social space which leaves no language safe, outside, nor any subject of the enunciation in position as judge, master, analyst, confessor, decoder. The theory of the Text can coincide only with a practice of writing.”

Should Writing Language Social Space Practice Subjects Position Judging Masters Theory Activity Safe Research Discourse Analysts

Author:Roland Barthes

“Pseudo-modernists pursue individual style because they know they cannot make a name without it; but if they had lived in the eighteenth century their sole object would have been to write correctly, to conform to the manner of the period. In practice, their conforming individualism means an imitation, studiously concealed, of the eccentricities of poems which really are individual.”

Ifs Knows Writing Mean Has Beens Names Individual Practice Century Style Objects Periods Pursue Individualism Sole Imitation Conform Concealed Eccentricity Pseudo Individual Style

Author:Laura Riding

“It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.”

Writing Trying Long Action Lasts Given Memories Practice Ears Casts Pens Polish Paragraph Deposits Mould

Book:The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq: With Memoirs of His Life and Writings

Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq: With Memoirs of His Life and Writings

“I realized how valuable the art and practice of writing letters are, and how important it is to remind people of what a treasure letters--handwritten letters--can be. In our throwaway era of quick phone calls, faxes, and email, it's all to easy never to find the time to write letters. That's a great pity--for historians and the rest of us.”

People Writing Art Important Easy Practice Letters Phones Valuable I Realized Treasure Pity Eras Historian Email Phone Calls Fax Handwritten Letters

Book:I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan

Source: I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan

“Know what makes a sentence more than a random list, practice constructing sentences and explaining what you have done, and you will know how to make sentences forever and you will know too when what you are writing doesn't make the grade because it has degenerated into a mere pile of discrete items.”

Knows Writing Done Practice Know How Forever Mere Sentences Lists Grades Items Explaining Discrete

Author:Stanley Fish

“Just as you can practice three-word sentences or sentences that travel across time zones, so can you practice writing sentences that breathe unshakable conviction.”

Writing Three Practice Conviction Sentences Breathe Zone Unshakable Three Words Time Zones

Author:Stanley Fish

“I've always thought of my writing as a spiritual practice. But I think that fiction is the most supernatural kind of writing that you can do - because of the ways that the real and the unreal weave together to create something that feels more true than anything.”

Thinking Way Feels Writing Kind Real Together Spiritual Can Do Fiction Practice Unreal Spiritual Practice

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert

“You know, I think everybody I've seen has come from some other therapy, and almost invariably it's very much the same thing: the therapist is too disinterested, a little too aloof, a little too inactive. They're not really interested in the person, he doesn't relate to the person. All these things I've written so much about. That's why I've made such a practice really, over and over to hammer home the point of self-revelation and being more of yourself and showing yourself. Every book I write I want to get that in there.”

Thinking Knows Want Writing Littles Persons Made Book Self Home Practice Written Relate Therapy Revelations Hammers Therapists Disinterested Aloof Self Revelation

Author:Irvin D. Yalom

“Joy is a part of my process. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that poetry, as a practice, necessitates a sense of joy. It's exhilarating to come into contact with the things we write into being. And a real sense of play and abandon even when we are relying on hard-won technique, and even when the aim is deadly serious. How often do we get the excuse to stop, think, and then stop thinking altogether and try to listen to what sits behind our outside of our thoughts? Poets are lucky.”

Thinking Writing Trying Real Hard Play Facts Joy Poetry Process Behinds Practice Serious Poet Lucky Aim Excuse Technique Contact Abandon Our Thoughts Exhilarating

Author:Tracy K. Smith

“It has not been the style of Canadian politicians to write of their experiences, although it is the common practice for British, French, and American Politicians upon their retirement. But I have been criticized before and I expect to be again.”

Writing Has Beens Common Practice Style Politician British Retirement

Book:Memoirs of a Bird in a Gilded Cage

Source: Memoirs of a Bird in a Gilded Cage

“This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.”

Writing Running School Practice

Book:Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Source: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

“The art of the writer, like that of the player, is attained by slow degrees. The power of distinguishing and discriminating comick characters, or of filling tragedy with poetical images, must be the gift of nature, which no instruction nor labour can supply; but the art of dramatick disposition, the contexture of the scenes, the involution of the plot, the expedients of suspension, and the strategems of surprise, are to be learned by practice.”

Writing Art Character Practice Player Scene Degrees Tragedy Surprise Labour Plot Instruction Disposition Filling Suspension

Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler

“There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents; every new genius produces some innovation, which, when invented and approved, subverts the rules which the practice of foregoing authors had established.”

Writing Practice Produce Genius Essence Innovation Species Approved Constituents

Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.

“The Lord showed me by vision and revelation what would happen if we did not stop this practice... all ordinances would be stopped... many men would be made prisoners... I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write.”

Ifs Men Writing Made Happens Would Be Vision Lord Practice Revelations Prisoner Polygamy Ordinances

Author:John Andreas Widtsoe

“Once considered an art form that called for talent, or at least a craft that called for practice, a poem now needs only sincerity. Everyone, we're assured, is a poet. Writing poetry is good for us. It expresses our inmost feelings, which is wholesome. Reading other people's poems is pointless since those aren't our own inmost feelings.”

People Needs Writing Art Feelings Form Reading Practice Talent Poet Crafts Poetry Is Sincerity Assured Pointless Writing Poetry

Book:Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

Source: Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

“There are dance artists, painting artists and writing artists. Authors are writing artists. You can practice art in whatever medium you choose, and words are mine.”

Writing Art Artist Practice Mines Painting Mediums You Choose

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“The peculiar need to write is increased, it seems, rather than allayed with practice.”

Needs Writing Seems Practice Peculiar

Author:Fay Weldon

“Pivotal to a happy writing life is a practice of daily personal writing.”

Writing Life Is Practice Writing Life Pivotal Personal Writing

Author:Julia Cameron

“Recollect that to a woman who gets her living by her pen, 'time is money,' as it is to an artist. Therefore, encroaching on her time is lessening her income. And yet how often is this done (either heedlessly or selfishly) by persons professing to be her friends, and who are habitually in the practice of interrupting her in her writing hours.”

Writing Persons Done Artist Hours Practice Income Pens Often Is Interruptions Interrupting Time Is Money

Book:Selections from Eliza Leslie

Source: Selections from Eliza Leslie

“Writing is not, alas, like riding a bicycle: it does not get easier with practice.”

Writing Doe Practice Easier Riding Alas Bicycle Riding A Bicycle

Book:Voice Lessons: On Becoming a (woman) Writer

Source: Voice Lessons: On Becoming a (woman) Writer

“Making promises to myself, in my personal writing practice, has been important to me all my life. In practical application it is so much easier for me to make promises to others, and keep them, than it is to make promises to myself. "Why is that?" and the answer I gave myself is that in making promises to others I create a model of accountability and reinforcement. I duplicate that in my writing and have grown increasingly better at making and keeping promises to myself.”

Writing Has Beens Important Answers Practice Easier Promise Models Practicals Accountability Application Duplicate Reinforcement Keeping Promises Personal Writing

Author:Mary Anne Radmacher

“The Practice I was on for seven years and it was a law show, so I really - a lot of objections and things like that, lots of long, long monologues that David Kelly used to write me, which were great. I was really lucky to have my first show go that long.”

Writing Years Firsts Long Shows Law Used Practice Lucky Seven Seven Years Objections Monologues

Author:Kelli Williams

“Just because science can't in practice explain things like the love that motivates a poet to write a sonnet, that doesn't mean that religion can. It's a simple and logical fallacy to say, "If science can't do something therefore religion can.”

Ifs Writing Mean Simple Practice Poet Logical Sonnet Fallacy Logical Fallacy

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Russian is such a tough and complex language that I am happy enough to understand everything and read most things pretty well, but, without constant practice, my speech is not what I wish it was, and I would sooner write in crayon than write a letter in Russian.”

Writing Wells Enough Language Wish Practice Speech Tough Letters Constant Complexes Crayon

Author:David Remnick

“I love people, and I love to be with people and to make music with people, but my natural state is to revert back to being by myself in my house, which is cool because thats where I practice and write and listen and study.”

People Writing States House Natural Practice Study

Author:Esperanza Spalding

“The most important advice I can offer is that writing is a craft that you can learn by practicing. If you keep writing, you will improve.”

Ifs Writing I Can Important Practice Learning Advice Offers Crafts Practice Makes Perfect

Author:Lauren Tarshis

“When the whole world is writing letters, it's easy to lap into the quiet within, tell the story of an hour, keep alive the narrating inner life. To be alone in the presence of one's thought is not a value, only a common practice.”

Thinking World Writing Whole Stories Values Easy Hours Common Practice Alive Solitude Quiet Letters Whole World Thoughtful Lap Inner Life

Author:Vivian Gornick

“Ko Un's poems evoke the open creativity and fluidity of nature, and funny turns and twists of Mind. Mind is sometimes registered in Buddhist terms - Buddhist practice being part of Ko Un's background. Ko Un writes spare, short-line lyrics direct to the point, but often intricate in both wit and meaning. Ko Un has now traveled worldwide and is not only a major spokesman for all Korean culture, but a voice for Planet Earth Watershed as well.”

“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.”

“Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well.”

Ifs Writing Believe Wells Hands Young Courses Reading Practice Democracy Reader Literacy Hand In Hand Reading And Writing

Author:Margaret Atwood

“[T]he one thing I want for you is to recognize when you are really singing in writing practice and honor that. Trust that. When you were screaming on the page. Maybe that doesn't make a whole book but that is the true seed.”

Want Writing Book Whole Practice One Thing Honor Pages Singing Seeds

Author:Natalie Goldberg

“A couple of pieces of advice for the kids who are serious about writing are: first of all, to read everything you can get your hands on so you can become familiar with different forms of writing: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalism. That's very important. And also keep a journal. Not so much, because it's good writing practice. Although it is, but more because it's a wonderful source of story starters.”

“You have to read a lot so you know what good writing looks like and you get inspired. You have to write a lot because it's like a sport - you have to practice. And, also, you have to persevere. Don't give up. I got rejected on my first book, like, 14 times, but I just kept going. So believe in yourself and don't give up.”

Knows Giving Writing Firsts Believe Looks Book Sports Practice Giving Up Inspired Believe In Yourself Rejected Believe In You Persevere Don't Give Up Good Writing

Author:Rick Riordan

“I write my books to challenge my own feelings and theories. Perhaps most surprising was what I learned about rice farming. It was really interesting to think of how different Asian and Western cultures are as a result of the kinds of agricultural practices that our ancestors used for thousands of years. The life of a Chinese peasant in the Middle Ages was so dramatically different from the life of a European peasant - night and day different.”

“Art and writing come from somewhere down around the lizard brain. It's a much more peculiar activity than we like to think it is. The problems arise when we try to domesticate the practice, to pretend that it's a normal human activity and that "everybody's creative." They're not.”

Thinking Writing Trying Humans Art Problem Brain Practice Creative Activity Normal Arise Peculiar Human Activity Lizards

Author:Dave Hickey

“The more you write tunes, the better they will become. The more you do gigs, the better you will become. It’s just kind of like the facts of life; the practice makes perfect thing. Keep your fingers crossed, start from the bottom and work your way up.”

Way Writing Kind Facts Perfect Practice Fingers Bottom Tunes Gigs Facts Of Life Practice Makes Perfect Perfect Things Fingers Crossed

Author:Ed Sheeran

“If you're a musician, you can practice your guitar every day and write songs, but when you're an actor, you can't just like burst into a monologue. Your only exercise is when you're in prep or you're working.”

Ifs Writing Song Actors Practice Exercise Musician Guitar Monologues Preps

Author:Winona Ryder

“If you want to be a rock star, you're not going to just walk on stage. You gotta go practice in the garage until your fingers bleed. I always say that - the same with writing and the same with filmmaking - if it's really your passion, you've just got to stick with it and do it.”

Ifs Want Writing Passion Stars Walks Practice Rocks Stage Sticks Fingers Filmmaking Rock Star Garage

Author:Robert Rodriguez

“Never write about a place until you're away from it, because it gives you perspective. Immediately after you've seen something you can give a photographic description of it and make it accurate. That's good practice, but it isn't creative writing.”

Giving Writing Practice Creative Perspective Description Accurate Creative Writing

Author:Ernest Hemingway

“Journaling has become one of the most gratifying and fulfilling practices of my life. Not only do I derive the daily benefits of consciously directing my thoughts and putting them in writing, but even more powerful are those I have gained from reviewing my journals.”

Writing Powerful Practice Benefits Fulfilling Journal My Thoughts Journaling

Author:Hal Elrod

“Beware of advice. Consider your sources carefully. Look them up. See if you respect what they've made. Get educated. Be informed about who's real and who isn't. Study your craft and your industry, practice all the time, challenge yourself - write things you think you can't, try things you have been told you shouldn't try - leave room for surprises, and learn how to collaborate.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Trying Looks Has Beens Made Real Challenges Rooms Practice Study Advice Source Industry Surprise Educated Crafts Challenge Yourself

Author:Karen Walton

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