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Writing Quotes

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Writing Quotes

“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

“Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong. It is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously.”

Ifs Needs Writing Sometimes Grows Bits Wonder Our Lives Heard Wake Up Make Sense Visible Desperate Endeavor

Book:Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“I feel guilty because I want to act more than I want to write songs. I'm a person who likes to transition; I like to grow.”

Want Feels Writing Persons Song Grows Likes Guilty Transition

Author:Ester Dean

“Budget grows out of the story. If you're writing a story with people caught in an elevator for most of the film, you're pretty sure it won't be a $200 million movie.”

People Ifs Writing Stories Film Grows Millions Caught Budgets Elevators You Re Pretty

Author:J. Michael Straczynski

“You write music for yourself and if you just open that door and let people in, the audience is going to grow and it's going to become more accessible.”

People Ifs Writing Grows Audience Doors

Author:Yukimi Nagano

“If we want to write, it makes sense to read—and to read like a writer. If we wanted to grow roses, we would want to visit rose gardens and try to see them the way that a rose gardener would.”

Ifs Way Want Writing Trying Wanted Grows Garden Rose Make Sense Gardener Rose Garden

Author:Francine Prose

“I'm a novelist who read a lot as a kid. When you grow up on books and then grow up to write books, famous authors are a lot more meaningful to you than TV and movie stars.”

Writing Book Kids Stars Grows Growing Up Tvs Meaningful Novelists Movie Star

Author:Bill Vaughan

“I have come to understand myself as more of a New York writer, or more of a woman writer, but I don't feel like that while I'm writing. But I think that most New Yorkers would object to calling me a New Yorker. I didn't grow up here.”

Thinking Feels Writing Grows Growing Up New York Objects Calling New Yorkers

Author:Sloane Crosley

“For those that love the world serve it in action, Grow rich, popular, and full of influence; And should they paint or write still is it action, The struggle of the fly in marmalade.”

World Should Writing Stills Action Grows Struggle Rich Influence Paint Marmalade

Book:Selected Poems And Four Plays

Source: Selected Poems And Four Plays

“When Walt Whitman writes in seeming defiance of tradition, he needs tradition for his protection, for the butcher and the baker and the candlestick-maker grow merry over him when they meet his work by chance.”

Needs Writing Grows Chance Tradition Protection Makers Merry Defiance Seeming Walt Butchers Bakers

Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

Source: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

“You grow a whole lot more as a writer by getting old stories out of the house and letting new ones come in and live with you until they grow up and are ready to go. Don't let the old ones stay there and grow fat and cranky and eat all the food out of the refrigerator. You have dozens of generations of stories inside you, but the only way to make room for the new ones is to write the old ones and mail them off.”

Way Writing Whole Stories House Grows Rooms Growing Up Generations Ready Fats Dozen Mail Getting Old Refrigerators Cranky

Author:Orson Scott Card

“I write in a hurry, because the little one, who has been sleeping a long time, begins to call for me. Poor thing! when I am sad, I lament that all my affections grow on me, till they become too strong for my peace, though they all afford me snatches of exquisite enjoyment.”

Writing Littles Long Has Beens Strong Grows Sleep Poor Long Time Affection Enjoyment Exquisite Lament

Book:Posthumous Works: of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Source: Posthumous Works: of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman