“There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.” WorldNeedsWritingReasonCommonOne ThingAlternativesReason WhyNovelists Author:John Fowles
“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.” WritingPersonsCharacterCommonNovelVirtueActiveGood PersonThrillersPredatory Author:Thomas Perry
“I think the tendency to over-explain and over describe is one of the most common failings in fantasy. It's an unfortunate piece of Tolkien's legacy. Don't get me wrong, Tolkien was a great worldbuilder, but he got a little caught up describing his world at times, at the expense of the overall story.” ThinkingWorldWritingLittlesStoriesCommonFantasyPiecesFailingCaughtTendenciesLegacyExpensesUnfortunateCaught UpDescribing Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“I like both music and acting, and they both have a lot in common - timing, immediacy, stuff like that. But acting is more regimented. You wait around for hours, you don't get to write the script, you get hired. Music represents me better. I'm not acting; I'm just expressing myself.” WritingStuffWaitingHoursCommonActingScriptsTimingImmediacy Author:Lukas Haas
“There are so many different kinds of writing and so many ways to work that the only rule is this: do what works. Almost everything has been tried and found to succeed for somebody. The methods, even the ideas of successful writers contradict each other in a most heartening way, and the only element I find common to all successful writers is persistence-an overwhelming determination to succeed.” WayWritingKindHas BeensIdeasDifferentFoundCommonSuccessfulSucceedElementsDeterminationMethodPersistenceOverwhelmingDifferent KindsDetermination To Succeed Book:For Writers Only: Inspiring Thoughts on the Exquisite Pain and Heady Joy of the Writing Life from Its Great Practitioners Source: For Writers Only: Inspiring Thoughts on the Exquisite Pain and Heady Joy of the Writing Life from Its Great Practitioners
“So many people think that social studies and weird lessons in social studies, teaching kids in America are bad, is it the result of Common Core? And it's not. It's not. Common Core does not deal with social studies. It's basically writing and math.” PeopleThinkingWritingDoeKidsAmericaSocialResultsDealsCommonStudyTeachingLessonsMathCoreSocial StudiesTeaching KidsCommon Core Author:Megyn Kelly
“By far the most common task for which the machines are used is writing - or word processing, as it's known to the same people who call journalism 'content.” PeopleWritingUsedCommonKnownTasksMachinesJournalismProcessing Author:Robert Motherwell
“anyone who writes about "Darwin's theory of evolutionin the singular, without segregating the theories of gradual evolution, common descent, speciation, and the mechanism of natural selection, will be quite unable to discuss the subject competently.” WritingNaturalCommonSocietySubjectsTheoryEvolutionMechanismSelectionNatural SelectionDescentSpeciation Author:Ernst Mayr
“I myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself. When Anne Sexton admonished me, "We are all writing God's poem," I took it to mean there should be no competition between writers because we are all involved in a common project, a common prayer. But to Gore's and Norman's generation, particularly those male writers who served in the second world war, the prizefighter paradigm remains.” WorldShouldWritingMeanWarHardHatePrayerCommonGenerationsInvolvedProjectsRemainsCompetitionMalesWar Of The WorldsParadigmGoreSecond World WarSelf Hate Author:Erica Jong
“Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last. The acts of a nation may be triumphant by its good fortune; and its words mighty by the genius of a few of its children: but its art, only by the general gifts and common sympathies of the race.” WritingMayChildrenArtTwoBookLastsThreeNationsCommonRaceGeniusUnderstoodFortuneDeedsAutobiographyGood FortuneTrustworthyManuscriptsTriumphantGreat Nations Author:John Ruskin