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Writing Quotes

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Writing Quotes

“People ask me what I'm writing. They think I'm Sandra Tsing Loh. Or they ask about stand-up. 'No, that's Margaret Cho.' I really think there is this kind of glomming, that they think we are somehow all the same person.”

People Thinking Writing Kind Persons Asks Ask Me

Author:Sandra Oh

“I will get a loan and pay the money the court asks for. But I will not lay down my writing and I still say this was an important book to write.”

Writing Stills Important Book Asks Pay Court Lays Loan

Author:Asne Seierstad

“Nobody asks you to do this. The world out there is not panting after another novelist. We choose it”

World Writing Asks Novelists

Author:Paul Auster

“Had I to give advice to writers (and I do not think they need it, because everyone has to find out things for himself), I would tell them simply this; I would ask them to tamper as little as they can with their own work. I do not think tinkering does any good. The moment comes when one has found out what one can do - when one has found one's natural voice, one's rhythm. Then I do not think that slight emendations should prove useful.”

Thinking Needs Giving Should Writing Littles Doe Moments Asks Found Voice Can Do Natural Advice Prove Rhythm Tinkering

Author:Jorge Luis Borges

“You may well ask me why...I took the time to write [books]. I can only reply that I do not know. There was no why about it. I had to: that was all.”

Knows Writing Wells May I Can Book Asks Ask Me

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell them to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning.”

Way Writing Said Stories Would Be Asks Fiction Statements Abstract Inadequate

Book:Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“Sandeep Jauhar’s Doctored is a passionate and necessary book that asks difficult questions about the future of medicine. The narrative is gripping, and the writing is marvelous. But it was the gravity of the problem—so movingly told—that grabbed and kept my attention throughout this remarkable work.”

Writing Book Problem Asks Difficult Attention Medicine Passionate Narrative Remarkable Gravity Marvelous Gripping Difficult Questions

Author:Siddhartha Mukherjee

“When you ask me to sign your NDA, you're basically saying, in writing, that you don't trust me.”

Writing Asks Ask Me Trust Me Don't Trust

Author:Anil Dash

“Ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write [create]? Dig into yourself for a deep answer.”

Writing Night Asks Hours Answers Silent

Author:Rainer Maria Rilke

“A student comes to me with a piece of writing, holds it out, says, 'Is this good?' A whole sequence of emergencies goes off in my mind. That's not a question to ask anyone but yourself.”

Writing Mind Whole Asks Pieces Students Emergencies Sequence

Author:William Stafford

“Everyday, the mail brings the thousands of letters, and you hand over to Me personally hundreds more. Yet, I do not take the help of anyone else, even to open the envelopes. For, you write to me intimate details of your personal problems, believing that I alone will read them and having implicit confidence in Me. You write, each one only a single letter, that makes for Me a huge bundle a day; and I have to go through all of them. You may ask how I manage it? Well I do not waste a single moment.”

Writing Believe Wells May Moments Helping Problem Hands Asks Huge Waste Letters Everyday Details Manage Intimate Mail Single Mom Envelopes Bundles Implicit Personal Problems

Author:Sathya Sai Baba

“I abide by a rule concerning reviews: I will never ask, neither in writing nor in person, that a word be put in about my book.... One feels cleaner this way. When someone asks that his book be reviewed he risks running up against a vulgarity offensive to authorial sensibilities.”

Way Feels Writing Persons Book Running Asks Risk Reviews Sensibility Offensive Cleaners Vulgarity

Author:Anton Chekhov

“What really worries me is that those who are in positions of power are not really affected by what we are writing. In the moral dialogue you want to start, you really want to involve the leaders. People ask me: "Why were you so bold as to publish A Man of the People? How did you think the Government was going to take it? You didn't know there was going to be a coup?" I said rather flippantly that nobody was going to read it anyway, so I wasn't likely to be fired from my official position. It's a distressing thought that we cannot engage our leaders in the kind of moral debate we need.”

Source: Conversations with Chinua Achebe