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Writing Quotes

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Writing Quotes

“Perhaps no poet is a conscious plagiarist, but there seems to be warrant for suspecting that there is no poet who is not at one time or another an unconscious one.”

Writing Seems Poet Conscious Unconscious One Time Warrants

Book:Following the Equator:

Source: Following the Equator:

“Writers who get written about become self-conscious. They develop a regrettable habit of looking at themselves through the eyes of other people. They are no longer alone, they have an investment in critical praise, and they think they must protect it. This leads to a diffusion of effort. The writer watches himself as he works. He grows more subtle and he pays for it by loss of organic dash.”

Source: Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler

“Read like mad. But try to do it analytically - which can be hard, because the better and more compelling a novel is, the less conscious you will be of its devices. It's worth trying to figure those devices out, however: they might come in useful in your own work.”

Writing Trying Hard Might Novel Figures Conscious Mad Devices Compelling

Author:Sarah Waters

“Writing is like meditation or going into an ESP trance, or prayer. Like dreaming. You are tapping into your unconscious. To be fully conscious and alert, with life banging and popping and cuckooing all around, you are not going to find your way to your subconscious, which is a place of complete submission.”

Way Writing Dream Prayer Meditation Conscious Unconscious Subconscious Submission Trance Banging Tapping Popping Esp

Author:Carolyn Chute

“In every book I write, I try to name-check the most prominent influences, or the most prominent conscious influences.”

Writing Trying Book Names Influence Conscious Checks Prominent

Author:China Mieville

“Some writing is a really nice solitary process, in a way, because you can be a little self-conscious around other people. If it's just you, and you're at your favorite piano, or whatever instrument, and you feel comfortable, then somehow, I always feel like it's opening a door and letting whatever is to pass through pass.”

People Ifs Way Feels Writing Littles Self Process Nice Doors Comfortable Conscious Instruments Opening Piano Solitary Self Conscious Really Nice Your Favorite

Author:Marketa Irglova

“Created for MTV in 1990, the sharply observed, pop-conscious Ben Stiller Show - featuring its star's lacerating impersonations of Bono, Tom Cruise, and Eddie Munster, among others - subsequently moved to Fox TV and copped an Emmy for writing.”

Writing Shows Stars Tvs Conscious Moved Pops Toms Foxes Cruise Mtv Emmys

Author:Manohla Dargis

“The brain writes the autobiography of our species at the conscious level.”

Writing Levels Brain Conscious Species Autobiography

Author:David Brooks

“The conscious mind is the editor, and the subconscious mind is the writer. And the joy of writing, when you're writing from your subconscious, is beautiful - it's thrilling. When you're editing, which is your conscious mind, it's like torture.”

Writing Mind Beautiful Joy Conscious Torture Editors Editing Subconscious Thrilling Subconscious Mind Conscious Mind

Author:Steve Martin

“Now you know you're going to have to play music for the label, you know you're going to have to get an opinion from the manager. Now, I'm so much more conscious and it bothers me. I try to find my way back to writing without being too analytical or not thinking about whether this is good or is it bad.”

Thinking Knows Way Writing Trying Play Opinion Conscious Managers My Way Labels Bother

Author:Yukimi Nagano

“I made a very conscious effort to finish 'The Cypress House' before 'So Cold the River' launched, because I thought that would help build a buffer between my writing and any impact that came from either the success or the failure of that first book.”

Writing Firsts Made Book Helping House Effort Cold Conscious Rivers Impact Cypresses

Author:Michael Koryta

“For Borges, the core of reality lay in books; reading books, writing books, talking about books. In a visceral way, he was conscious of continuing a dialogue begun thousands of years before and which he believed would never end.”

Way Writing Years Book Ends Reality Reading Talking Conscious Lays Core Dialogue Reading Books Continuing Writing A Book Book Reading Book Writing Visceral Borges

Book:With Borges

Source: With Borges

“Disgrace is a subtle, multi-layered story, as much concerned with politics as it is with the itch of male flesh. Coetzee's prose is chaste and lyrical without being self- conscious: it is a relief to encounter writing as quietly stylish as this. I was not totally convinced by Lurie's musical abilities, with regard to his proposed opera, but that is my sole complaint.”