“I love comedy and I would write things to myself as an exercise in writing. I didn't do well for years, and I quit. I started to break down why I was afraid and started to look at people I admired, like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Freddie Prinze, George Carlin and all.” PeopleWritingYearsWellsLooksBreakComedyExerciseQuittingBreaking DownI QuitMurphy Author:George Lopez
“Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.” WritingMadeCharacterBornExerciseFleshFree WillVolitionFictional Character Author:John Banville
“Regard yourself as a small corporation of one. Take yourself off on team-building exercises (long walks). Hold a Christmas party every year at which you stand in the corner of your writing room, shouting very loudly to yourself while drinking a bottle of white wine. Then masturbate under the desk. The following day you will feel a deep and cohering sense of embarrassment.” FeelsWritingYearsLongWhiteWalksRoomsPartyTeamBuildingExerciseRegardWineDrinkingFollowingCornersCorporationsBottlesDesksEmbarrassmentTeam BuildingShoutingLong WalksChristmas PartyWhite Wine Author:Will Self
“I try to write about small insignificant things. I try to find out if it’s possible to say anything about them. And I almost always do if I sit down and write about something. There is something in that thing that I can write about. It’s very much like a rehearsal. An exercise, in a way.” IfsWayWritingTryingI CanExerciseDown AndSay AnythingInsignificantRehearsalInsignificant Things Author:Karl Ove Knausgard
“It is a very good exercise, at least from a historian's point of view, to imagine oneself a devout pagan while reading various Christian writings.” WritingChristianReadingViewsImagineExerciseVery GoodOneselfVariousPoint Of ViewHistorianPaganGood Exercise Author:Ramsay MacMullen
“For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style.” MenWritingWellsThreeStyleExerciseSpeakers Author:Ben Jonson
“I have a rule: before I can throw anything out, I have to write down five possible uses for it. This stretches my mind and keeps it nimble - just like stretching exercises do for my body.” WritingMindI CanUseBodyFiveExerciseStretchingNimble Author:Anna Olson
“I compelled myself all through to write an exercise in verse, in a different form, every day of the year. I turned out my page every day, of some sort - I mean I didn't give a damn about the meaning, I just wanted to master the form - all the way from free verse, Walt Whitman, to the most elaborate of villanelles and ballad forms. Very good training. I've always told everybody who has ever come to me that I thought that was the first thing to do.” WayGivingWritingYearsFirstsMeanDifferentWantedFormMastersExercisePagesTrainingVery GoodDamnThings To DoVersesCompelledWaltBalladsDays Of The YearFree Verse Author:Conrad Aiken