Best Writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 27

“Writing: I certainly do rewrite my central myth in every book, and would never read or trust any writer who did not also do so.”

Writing Book Myth

Author:Northrop Frye

“We have to look at the figures of speech a writer uses, his images and symbols, to realize that underneath all the complexity of human life that uneasy stare at an alien nature is still haunting us, and the problem of surmounting it still with us.”

Writing Humans Looks Stills Use Problem Realizing Figures Speech Symbols Aliens Human Life Staring Complexity Haunting Uneasy Figures Of Speech Complexity Of Human

Book:The Educated Imagination

Source: The Educated Imagination

“To be understood a writer has to explain almost everything.”

Writing Understood

Author:Eugene Delacroix

“A man like Verdi must write like Verdi.”

Men Writing Verdi

Book:Messa da Requiem: Critical Edition Study Score

Source: Messa da Requiem: Critical Edition Study Score

“I came to a dead stop and began major revisions. Sometimes these entailed the shredding of all existing manuscript for a fresh start - an inefficient way to write a book, though I found it exciting.”

Way Writing Book Sometimes Found Majors Exciting Editing Manuscripts Revision Fresh Start Shredding

Author:William Manchester

“Professors will lecture with more inspiration if they occasionally alternate the classroom with the beach: authors will write better when, as Macaulay used to do, they write for two hours, then pitch quoits, and then go back to their writing. But certainly more than the mere mechanical alternation is involved.”

Ifs Writing Two Inspiration Used Hours Involved Mere Planning Beach Professors Classroom Lectures

Book:The Courage to Create

Source: The Courage to Create

“I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I finished my third in 1970.”

Ifs Writing Years Long Enough Seems Four Thirds Finished Opera

Author:Virgil Thomson

“History -- its what those bitter old men write.”

Men Writing History Bitter Old Man

Author:Jackie Kennedy

“Write your name in kindness, love and mercy on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten.”

Writing Years Heart Names Kindness Fame Mercy Forgotten Contact

Author:Thomas Chalmers

“The critics have been writing me off for 20 years. That's nothing new. As far as I know I still have plenty of fans and sell lots of records. Do I care what critics say about me? No, and I don't read reviews.”

Knows Writing Years Has Beens Stills Care Records Fans Criticism Sells Critics Plenty Reviews I Care Nothing New

Author:Madonna Ciccone

“It would be curious to discover who it is to whom one writes in a diary. Possibly to some mysterious personification of one's own identity.”

Writing Would Be Identity Mysterious Curious Diaries Personification

Book:My Apprenticeship

Source: My Apprenticeship

“I know I'm not going to write as well as I used to. I no longer have the stamina to endure the frustration. Writing is frustration - it's daily frustration, not to mention humiliation.”

Knows Writing Wells Used Endure Frustration Humiliation Stamina

Author:Philip Roth

“For a dyed-in-the-wool author nothing is as dead as a book once it is written. ... She is rather like a cat whose kittens have grown up.”

Writing Book Seems Growing Written Involved Cat Kitten Wool

Author:Rumer Godden

“O lovely Sisters! is it true That they are all inspired by you, And write by inward magic charm'd, And high enthusiasm warm'd?”

Writing Magic Inspired Warm Lovely Enthusiasm Charm Inward

Book:The dramatic and poetical works of Joanna Baillie

Source: The dramatic and poetical works of Joanna Baillie

“I knew I would be famous one day. That's because I lived in a very small town and nobody liked doing the same things I did, like writing.”

Writing Would Be One Day Fame Towns Small Town

Author:Alice Munro

“Writing is hard, but the more you write, and enjoy what you write, the better it gets.”

Writing Hard Enjoy

Author:Alice Munro

“When you start writing the magic comes when the characters seem to take on a life of their own and write the words for themselves.”

Writing Character Seems Magic

Author:Alice Hoffman

“So, you see, it's a real chore for me to write a book review because it's like a contest. It's like I'm writing that book review for every bad book reviewer I've ever known and it's a way of saying [thrusts a middle finger into the air] this is how you ought to do it. I like to rub their noses in it.”

Way Writing Book Real Known Air Middle Ought Fingers Noses Reviews Contests Thrust Chores Reviewers Book Review Middle Finger

Author:John Irving

“By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it.”

World Giving Writing I Can Order Handle Autonomy

Author:Gloria E. Anzaldúa

“Why am I compelled to write? Because the writing saves me from this complacency I fear. Because I have no choice.”

Writing Choices Compelled Complacency Save Me

Author:Gloria E. Anzaldúa

“I love to write out of doors and sleep out of doors, too. If I sleep under the open sky it becomes part of the writing experience, part of my insulation from the world.”

Ifs World Writing Sleep Doors Sky Insulation

Book:Portrait of Myself

Source: Portrait of Myself

“I see myself as someone who's been saved by writing. God knows what I would have been, become or how I would have ended up without it.”

Knows Writing Has Beens Saved God Knows

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“Writing is one of the easiest things: erasing is one of the hardest.”

Writing Hardest

Author:Yisroel Salanter

“Write down everything you want to do with your life and then spend the next 25 years doing them.”

Want Writing Years Next Planning

Author:Robert De Niro

“We all have time to write. We have time to write the minute we are willing to write badly, to chase a dead end, to scribble a few words, to write for the hell of it instead of for the perfect and polished result.”

Writing Ends Time Perfect Results Hell Minutes Willing Polished Few Words Dead Ends Scribbles

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

“Until film is just as easily accessible as a pen or pencil, then it's not completely an art form. In painting you can just pick up a piece of chalk, a stick or whatever. In sculpture you can get a rock. Writing you just need a pencil and paper.”

Needs Writing Art Film Form Pieces Rocks Painting Paper Picks Sticks Pens Pencils Sculpture Chalk

Author:Forest Whitaker

“It's all the unwordable things one wants to write about, just as it's all the unformable things one wants to paint - essence.”

Want Writing Essence Paint

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Writing is a splendid sorter of... feelings, better even than paint.”

Writing Feelings Paint Feel Better Splendid

Author:Emily Carr

“The poets are the standard bearers of language. Their work lives or dies word by word. When I write and can hear a clunky sentence, I try to write up to the poetry that I have recited beforehand.”

Writing Trying Poetry Dies Language Poet Standards Sentences

Author:Janet Fitch

“Letters, from absent friends, extinguish fear, Unite division, and draw distance near; Their magic force each silent wish conveys, And wafts embodied though, a thousand ways: Could souls to bodies write, death's pow'r were mean, For minds could then meet minds with heav'n between.”

Way Writing Mind Mean Soul Body Force Wish Magic Thousand Draws Letters Distance Silent Division Absent Pow Absent Friends

Author:Aaron Hill

“My first book took five years to write and I made $1,000 on it. The second took three years and I made $3,000. All this time I was a housewife being supported by a husband. I was very lucky.”

Writing Years Firsts Made Book Three Five Lucky Husband Five Years Three Years Housewife

Author:Judith Perelman Rossner

“everyone who is human has something to express. Try not expressing yourself for twenty-four hours and see what happens. You will nearly burst. You will want to write a long letter, or draw a picture, or sing, or make a dress or a garden.”

Want Writing Trying Humans Long Happens Humanity Hours Four Communication Draws Garden Letters Twenties Dresses Express Yourself

Book:If You Want to Write

Source: If You Want to Write

“the only way to become a better writer is to become a better person.”

Way Writing Persons Better Person

Book:If You Want to Write

Source: If You Want to Write

“Sometimes I feel that the people I'm writing are more real to me than the people around me. When you take that imaginative leap, you're living so much in that world.”

People World Feels Writing Real Sometimes Leap Imaginative

Author:Zoe Kazan

“I was born in North London in 1947. I didn't learn to read until I was almost 8-partly bad schooling, and partly I suspect slight dyslexic problems. My father, driven mad by this, taught me to read. At 9 I began writing.”

Writing Problem Father Born Taught Mad London Driven Suspects Parting Schooling Dyslexic

Author:Tanith Lee

“Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others. When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it.”

Writing Interest Strikes Each Day Sparks

Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Children should learn to draw as they learn to write, and such a mystery should not be made of it. They should be encouraged, not flattered... then [later in life] double the effort is required to get the facility which might have been gained insensibly.”

Should Writing Children Has Beens Made Might Effort Mystery Draws Might Have Been Facility Flattered Be Encouraged Later In Life

Author:William Morris Hunt

“Keep a gratitude journal. Write down at least three things a day you are either thankful for, made you smile or genuinely inspired you.”

Writing Made Three Gratitude Inspired Journal Three Things

Author:Robert Holden

“I was in Los Angeles making 'Dead Again' and the producer, Lindsay Doran , asked me if I'd be interested in adapting this book, .. Austen is my favorite author and I thought, 'Well, of course, I'd be very interested, but I don't know how. I don't know where to start, A, writing a screenplay and B, sort of adapting it from a great novel.”

Ifs Knows Writing Wells Book Courses Novel Know How My Favorite Producers Los Angeles Screenplays Adaptability Adapting Austen Great Novels

Author:Emma Thompson

“At its heartmeat core, writing is about exploring the questions of your heart on the assumption that what intrigues you, what inflames or amuses or ennobles you, will have the same effect on someone else. It's about taking chances, and taking risks, and pushing yourself to be honest in the issues that present themselves.”

Writing Heart Chance Issues Risk Effects Honest Core Being Honest Assumption Pushing Exploring Intrigue Take A Chance Taking Risks Push Yourself

Author:J. Michael Straczynski

“Writing is the worst part of being a writer.”

Writing Worst

Author:James Atlas

“I'm writing a film called 'Bug.' It's an original script, and it's not about killer insects. It's a thriller set in a high school. The bug of the title refers to a surveillance device.”

Writing School Film High School Originals Scripts Titles Devices Killers Insects Bugs Surveillance Thrillers

Author:Wes Craven

“When I am writing, I focus one hundred percent on my writing. Then, by the time I'm half way through the book, I'm already thinking about the ending.”

Thinking Way Writing Book Half Focus Percent Hundred Half Way

Author:Anita Desai

“Writers tend to consider distinction and originality as virtues, but they are anathema to publishers.”

Writing Virtue Distinction Originality Publishers Anathema

Book:The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World

Source: The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World

“I'm not really an autobiographical writer, though I use lots of stuff from my life to make my stories seem real. But when I actually write about myself, I get very confused.”

Writing Real Stories Use Seems Stuff Confused Revelations

Author:Jeffrey Eugenides

“I have a very beautiful room in my house... It's glass on three sides, and you'd think that's the perfect place to write. Somehow in that nice room I feel too exposed, and... I'm too distracted by things going on, so I end up writing in a not-very-nice office bedroom.”

Thinking Feels Writing Ends Beautiful Three House Sides Perfect Rooms Nice Office Glasses Exposed Bedroom Distracted Very Nice Very Beautiful Three Sides

Author:Jeffrey Eugenides

“Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I'm really not worth being called an artist at all.”

Ifs Writing Looks Artist Song Willing Capable Wounds

Author:Lady Gaga

“One of the things I keep coming back to in my writing is that society doesn't work on this mirror principle - you don't have an exact replica on the left of what you have on the right. It just doesn't work that way.”

Way Writing Left Principles Mirrors Coming Back Replica

Author:Thomas Frank

“For all the years I'd spent talking about pictures, the truth was that I had no idea how to draw or what it felt like to do it. I would mistrust a poetry critic who couldn't produce a rhyming couplet. Could one write about art without knowing how to draw?”

Writing Years Art Ideas Felt Talking Knowing Produce Draws Critics No Idea Mistrust Rhyming Couplets

Author:Adam Gopnik

“It's art that's taught me to think and to write.”

Thinking Writing Art Taught

Author:Andy Goldsworthy

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