Best Writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 5

“Since I was a small child, I was always writing either poems or plays... plays in which I had the starring part.”

“Name the book that made the biggest impression on you. I bet you read it before you hit puberty. In the time I've got left, I intend to write artistic books - for kids - because they're still open to new ideas.”

Writing Made Stills Book Ideas Kids Names Left Impression Artistic New Ideas Puberty Books For Kids

Author:Gary Paulsen

“I've been with Life now for seventeen years and I have written several articles for them and will be doing more writing and do at least two assignments a year besides my writing.”

Writing Years Two Written Articles Assignments Seventeen

Author:Gordon Parks

“The hard part of writing at all is sitting your ass down in a chair and writing it. There's always something better to do, like I've got an interview, sharpening the pencils, trimming the roses. There's always something better to do. Going to a writer's club?”

Writing Hard Sitting Rose Clubs Ass Interviews Chairs Pencils Something Better Sharpening Trimming

Author:Jerry Pournelle

“In a country like France, so ancient, their history is full of outstanding people, so they carry a heavy weight on their back. Who could write in French after Proust or Flaubert?”

People Writing Country Literature Weight Ancient Heavy France Outstanding Proust Heavy Weights

Author:Manuel Puig

“I write for somebody who has my own limitations. My reader has a certain difficulty with concentrating, which in my case comes from being a film viewer.”

Writing Film Certain Literature My Own Cases Reader Difficulty Limitation Viewers Concentrating

Author:Manuel Puig

“Whenever I write, I'm always thinking of the reader.”

Thinking Writing Literature Reader Always Thinking

Author:Manuel Puig

“My only fantasy about writing was that in my old days, after directing many masterpieces, I would write my memoirs.”

Writing Literature Fantasy Memoir Masterpiece Old Days

Author:Manuel Puig

“Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.”

Thinking Writing I Can Sometimes Panic

Author:Sara Paretsky

“Write what you care about.”

Writing Care

Author:Sara Paretsky

“I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it.”

Writing Fiction Grades Writing Fiction Eighth Grade

Author:Thomas Perry

“I held a variety of jobs - most notably ten years working in universities - and kept on writing.”

Writing Years Jobs Ten University Variety

Author:Thomas Perry

“If I don't have a project going, I sit down and begin to write something - a character sketch, a monologue, a description of some sight, or even just a list of ideas.”

Ifs Writing Ideas Character Projects Sight Down And Lists Description Monologues

Author:Thomas Perry

“It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape of the book as he's writing it. That is, he should be making an object, not chattering.”

Thinking Should Writing Important Book Fiction Awareness Objects Shapes Pace

Author:Thomas Perry

“The characters you refer to as predatory and unsavory are useful. They're the ones who make a novel into a thriller. They're active, and most of the common virtues, the signs of a good person, are not.”

Writing Persons Character Common Novel Virtue Active Good Person Thrillers Predatory

Author:Thomas Perry

“What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.”

Ifs Writing Looks I Can Character Speak Imagine

Author:Thomas Perry

“When I write a book, I'm making it the best book I can.”

Writing I Can Book

Author:Thomas Perry

“I remember that when I got to NYU, everyone was writing scripts. But I was 18 at the time, and when you write a script, so much of it is about what you pull from life, and this sounds sort of cheesy, but I felt like I didn't have enough life experience at that point to write a movie.”

Writing Enough Remember Felt Sound Scripts Life Experience Cheesy Nyu Writing Scripts

Author:Todd Phillips

“As for writing about temptation, there's no drama without temptation, and no novel without drama.”

Writing Novel Drama Temptation No Drama

Author:Tom Perrotta

“I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.”

World Writing Two Character Eye Together Seeing Honesty Sympathy Seeing The World

Author:Tom Perrotta

“I write about kids growing up, I write a lot about schools and parents, and all of my experiences with those things have been suburban experiences.”

Writing Has Beens Kids School Parent Growing Up Growing Kids Growing Up

Author:Tom Perrotta

“When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.”

Writing Culture Teacher Contemporary Evangelical Abstinence

Author:Tom Perrotta

“I was writing very early, like I was involved in our high school literary magazine, which was called 'Pariah.' The football team was the Bears, and the literary magazine was 'Pariah.' It was great. It was definitely a real sub-culture. But I wrote stories for them.”

Writing Real Stories School Culture Team Football Bears Involved High School Magazines Football Team Pariahs

Author:Tom Perrotta

“I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or stumble, people who don't surprise themselves with the things they do, people who can explain all their actions with perfect logical consistency. At least it's not possible for me to write that sort of novel.”

People Writing Action Perfect Novel Surprise Not Sure Logical Consistency

Author:Tom Perrotta

“The Pleasure Seekers eventually turned into Cradle, when we started writing our own material. My younger sister Nancy was brought in as singer and I kind of stepped aside as main lead singer and concentrated on my instrument.”

Writing Kind Pleasure Materials Instruments Singers Seekers Cradle Nancy Younger Sister

Author:Suzi Quatro

“Yeah, the whole 'One Tree Hill' experience made me realize I wanna write, and produce, and direct as well as act. I'm interested in all facets of the industry.”

Writing Wells Made Whole Realizing Tree Produce Industry Direct Yeah Hills Facets Tree Hill

Author:Ashley Rickards

“I hardly ever think about audience. I just try to tell a story for me. I write the kind of story I would like to read.”

Thinking Writing Trying Kind Stories Audience

Author:Brent Runyon

“I write in a rush of memory.”

Writing Memories

Author:Brent Runyon

“Now I'm trying to work outside first person. I do plan to write more books.”

Writing Trying Firsts Persons Book Plans Work Out First Person

Author:Brent Runyon

“Maybe I would have become an actor. I was a very outgoing kid, but being in the hospital - being outside of social action for so long - turned me into an observer. Actually, right after I got out of the hospital, I did start writing a novel, but the book was so transparently about me that I stopped.”

Writing Long Book Kids Action Actors Social Novel Hospitals Observers Outgoing Social Action

Author:Brent Runyon

“I don't have many friends. It's not because I'm a misanthrope. It's because I'm reserved. I'm self-contained. I get all my adventures in my head when I'm writing my books.”

Writing Book Self Adventure Reserved Many Friends Self Contained Misanthrope

Author:Ian Rankin

“Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction.”

Writing Wanted Fiction Scottish

Author:Ian Rankin

“I used to think that: whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I'd think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, 'No - it took you one year to write, and nine years to sit around eating Kit Kats.”

Thinking Writing Years Book Bigs Used Novel Taken Heard Serious Eating Nine Nine Years

Author:Ian Rankin

“I'm often asked how I write books, but I don't think my approach is suitable for everyone. If I walked into a creative writing class, all I could say to them was 'I tend to make it up as I go along.' I'm not sure that's brilliant advice.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Book Class Creative Advice Approach Brilliant Not Sure Creative Writing Suitable

Author:Ian Rankin

“I'm not writing great literature. I'm writing commercial fiction for people to enjoy the stories and to like the characters.”

People Writing Character Stories Literature Enjoy Fiction Great Literature

Author:Kathy Reichs

“One of the surprising things I hadn't expected when I decided to write crime fiction is how much you are expected to be out in front of the public. Some writers aren't comfortable with that. I don't have a problem with that.”

Writing Problem Fiction Fronts Crime Comfortable Decided Expected Surprising Crime Fiction Surprising Things

Author:Kathy Reichs

“The movies that work are the ones in which somebody very smart figured out how to take all the thematic material, all the character material, all the filigree, all the beautiful writing, and put it into a story.”

Writing Character Stories Beautiful Materials Smart Very Smart Beautiful Writing Thematic

Author:Scott Rudin

“I really didn't think about song writing.”

Thinking Writing Song

Author:Adam Rich

“We really try to make sure that the band writes the songs, not just one person.”

Writing Trying Persons Song Band Just One

Author:Adam Rich

“I have a lyric journal that I write in a lot. When I’m going to play, I just sit down and have my books with me and my notes and tapes and whatever I need to refer to. I just play and try different things. It’s a kind of discipline.”

Needs Writing Trying Kind Book Different Play Discipline Down And Notes Different Things Tape Journal

Author:Amy Ray

“I think the musicians I play with solo do a certain thing that the musicians we play with with the Indigo Girls don't do. It's just a different thing. And it sort of steers my writing in some ways.”

Thinking Way Writing Different Play Certain Girl Musician Different Things Solo Steers Indigo

Author:Amy Ray

“When I'm writing, which is 8-9 months out of the year, I'm in a concerted writing pace, where I work 5 days a week for at least a few hours a day, maybe a little bit more. But I won't work for more than 2 hours at a time. I'll work for a couple hours and take a break.”

Writing Years Littles Bits Hours Break Week Months Couple Little Bit Pace

Author:Amy Ray

“I think something that forces financial institutions to write down underwater mortgages, I think, would be a sensible thing to do.”

Thinking Writing Would Be Force Institutions Financial Things To Do Sensible Mortgage Underwater Financial Institutions

Author:Christina Romer

“I had various jobs, I taught a SAT class, I was a bartender, I had a day job at an office and was making short films. I got grants from NYSCA and NEA for an idea, which later became 'Huckabees,' about a guy in a Chinese restaurant who had microphones on every table and heard every personal conversation and would write perversely personal fortunes.”

Writing Ideas Jobs Film Guy Class Heard Taught Conversation Office Tables Fortune Various Chinese Sat Restaurants Grants Microphones Day Jobs Bartender Short Films

Author:David O. Russell

“The whole trick is to make it feel like you're spying on real people's lives as they get through the day. When I'm writing, I have to trick myself as a writer. If I consciously say, 'I'm writing,' I feel all this pressure and somehow it doesn't feel as real as when it doesn't seem to count as much.”

People Ifs Feels Writing Real Whole Seems Like You Pressure Tricks

Author:David O. Russell

“When I write an email where I outlined a whole scene, it just came out of my unconscious, it comes from a deeper place. The same thing happens when the actors go, take after take, and just get lost in it. When you're in a house, you don't think about being in the house; you're just there.”

Thinking Writing Whole Happens Actors House Lost Scene Deeper Things Happen Unconscious Email

Author:David O. Russell

“All I'm doing is I'm filling out my tax returns - or my accountants are, and I'm paying whatever I'm supposed to pay, though I'm giving away a large amount of the money and that probably lowers my tax rate because I'm giving away so much money. But change the law, but don't blame me for the law. I'm not writing the law. I didn't write the law.”

Giving Writing Law Pay Return Amount Taxes Blame Rate Filling Accountants Blame Me Tax Returns Don't Blame Me

Author:David Rubenstein

“It's not easy to strap yourself down to a desk and bash on a keyboard when you know you can direct lots of films, because directing films is fun and interactive and gregarious. Writing isn't.”

Knows Writing Film Fun Easy Direct Desks Keyboards Interactive Gregarious Bash Directing Film

Author:Guy Ritchie

“Generally, if you preface an interview request with, 'I'm an author writing a book,' for some reason, that seems to open a lot of doors.”

Ifs Writing Book Reason Seems Doors Interviews Request Writing A Book

Author:James Rollins

“I wrote for years before I was ever published, and I don't think I could ever stop. That said, I was also a veterinarian before I sold my first book, and I still volunteer my time to help with animal welfare causes. So that is a career I would be happy to return to - while still secretly writing strange stories back in my doctor's office.”

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Writing Quotes