Best writing & knows Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me... And you know, people like happy endings.”

People Thinking Knows Writing Kind Book Voice Comedy Adults Intelligent Like Me Editors Happy Endings Quirky

Author:Elinor Lipman

“Writing is my therapy. In addition to my real therapy. God knows where I'd be without it. I'd probably still be at my last job, working in HR at a religious organization. I was horribly miscast.”

Knows Writing Stills Real Jobs Lasts Religious Organization Therapy God Knows

Author:Jenny Lawson

“I would like all my friends, followers, fans and fellow travelers to know that I am fighting cancer and will therefore be taking a break from performing while getting the treatment and cure. I shall of course be continuing to write music - in my world it just has to be part of the therapy - and I fully expect to be back in good shape next year.”

“I play in a band, I write songs, I sing, you know, perform on stage.”

Knows Writing Play Song Stage Band

Author:Adam Levine

“When you are writing, of course, you have to do all that writing and correcting for yourself. When I was a librarian it was expected that I would know about a wide range of books.”

Knows Writing Book Courses Wide Expected Range Librarian Correcting

Author:Margaret Mahy

“I would say I'd rather dig a ditch, you know, do hard, manual labor than write lyrics.”

Knows Writing Hard Labor Manuals Manual Labor

Author:Natalie Merchant

“All I write about is what's happened to me and to people I know, and the better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about.”

People Knows Writing Literature Written Happened

Author:Norman MacCaig

“Well, you just know, as a writer, I didn't really write one of the five best screenplays of the year. There were lots of brilliant screenplays; I was just one of the lucky ones who got nominated.”

Knows Writing Years Wells Five Lucky Brilliant Just One Screenplays

Author:Patrick Marber

“My favorite music to sing would be my own songs, my original songs, just because I know them, you know I write the tunes, so my favorite songs are the newest ones that I write. That's what I like to sing the most, because it means something, it's real, it comes from me.”

Knows Writing Mean Real Would Be Song My Own Originals My Favorite Tunes Favorite Song Favorite Music

Author:Paul McDonald

“The most exciting thing I aspire to do is to write something new that I know is going to work, or perform something that I know is going to make people laugh.”

People Knows Writing Laughing Exciting Something New Aspire Going To Work Making People Laugh Exciting Things

Author:B. J. Novak

“I might just write a novel next. I don't know!”

Knows Writing Might Next Novel

Author:Frank Ocean

“A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.”

Knows Want Writing Firsts Book Childhood Your Children

Author:Tea Obreht

“In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are both massively supportive and always have been of my career.”

People Knows Writing Has Beens Mother Term Careers Influence Huge Grandmother My Grandmother Supportive Writing Life

Author:Tea Obreht

“When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the plot, I go back and I read Pablo Neruda's poetry. I don't actually speak Spanish, so I read it translation. But I always go back to Neruda. I don't know why, but it calms me, calms my brain.”

Knows Writing Matter Speak Brain Subjects Calm Block Plot Translations Subject Matter

Author:Tea Obreht

“I know about hip-hop culture, whether it's graffiti writing or DJ-ing or being an MC.”

Knows Writing Culture Hip Hop Hips Hops Djs Graffiti

Author:Josh Peck

“I know that the writers I read and admire all have an influence on my work, but trying to determine to what degree any particular piece of input changes the way I think about writing seems counterproductive.”

Thinking Knows Way Writing Trying Seems Pieces Influence Particular Degrees Determine Admire Input Counterproductive

Author:Kevin Powers

“Write what you know. Write what you want to know more about. Write what you're afraid to write about.”

Knows Want Writing Inspiration What You Want

Author:Cecil Murphey

“Well, first you have to love writing. A lot of authors love having written. But I enjoy the actual writing. Beside that, I think the main reason I can be so prolific is the huge amount of planning I do before I start to write. I do a very complete, chapter-by-chapter outline of every book I write. When I sit down to write, I already know everything that's going to happen in the book. This means I've done all the important thinking, and I can relax and enjoy the writing. I could never write so many books if I didn't outline them first.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Firsts Wells Mean I Can Important Book Reason Done Happens Enjoy Written Huge Amount Planning Relax Chapters Outlines

Author:R. L. Stine

“You can't. Do you hear me? You think you've figured something out? You run over here so pleased with yourself because you changed your mind. Now you're certain. You're so... sloppy. You don't know anything. The book, the math, the dates, the writing, all that stuff you decided with your buddies, it's just evidence. It doesn't finish the job. It doesn't prove anything.”

Thinking Knows Writing Mind Book Running Jobs Certain Stuff Changed Prove Evidence Decided Logic Math Certainty Uncertainty Reasoning Buddy Ontology Sloppy You Changed

Author:David Auburn

“I know when a story is finished when there is not a single thing more I can think to do to it. And since I know at the start what the last line will be, I know when I've reached that point as logically as I can that it's finished. As for the rewriting-it's not foolproof, of course, but if you're honest about having thought of every possibility and you still come back to what you have, what more can you do?”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Stills I Can Stories Lasts Courses Lines Honest Possibility Finished Rewriting Foolproof

Author:Amy Hempel

“If you can stand to wait 24 hours before you decide the fate of what you have written - either good or bad - you're more likely to see that invisible thing that is invisible for the first few days in any new writing. We just can't know what all is in a sentence until there are several sentences to follow it. Pages of writing need more pages in order to be known, chapters need more chapters.”

Ifs Knows Needs Writing Firsts Order Waiting Hours Known Fate Written Pages Sentences Invisible Chapters Invisible Things

Author:Lynda Barry

“I know you shouldn't spit in your own soup but I think most crime writing is like TV and doesn't make enormous demands on one's intellect.”

Thinking Knows Writing Crime Tvs Demand Intellect Enormous Soup Spit

Author:Donna Leon

“I know already the music I will write. But the words? I have not yet decided.”

Knows Writing Decided

Author:Gyorgy Ligeti

“I was kind of an outcast in school 'cause I always kept to myself and was writing poetry and then going on tour with my brother band all the time, so kids didn't know what to make of me.”

Knows Writing Kind Kids School Causes Brother Band My Brother Outcast Writing Poetry

Author:Christina Perri

“I've been having a lot of fun exploring different aspects of filmmaking, like writing and producing. There isn't a specific plan and I usually don't know what's going to be the next thing I do.”

Knows Writing Different Next Fun Plans Aspect Filmmaking Exploring

Author:Oren Peli

“With each book, in each place, I have to keep an ongoing map as I write because otherwise I don't know where I am.”

Knows Writing Book Maps Ongoing

Author:Tamora Pierce

“I've written short stories in first person, but you have so much more control writing in third person. Third person, you know what everybody's thinking. First person is very limiting, and I could never sustain a first person novel before.”

Thinking Knows Writing Firsts Persons Stories Novel Written Thirds Short Story First Person Third Person Thinking First

Author:Tamora Pierce

“It's not easy to strap yourself down to a desk and bash on a keyboard when you know you can direct lots of films, because directing films is fun and interactive and gregarious. Writing isn't.”

Knows Writing Film Fun Easy Direct Desks Keyboards Interactive Gregarious Bash Directing Film

Author:Guy Ritchie

“Why can I write 'South' with some assurance that you'll know I mean Richmond and don't mean Phoenix? What is it that the South's boundaries enclose?”

Knows Writing Mean South Boundaries Assurance Phoenix Richmond

Book:My Tears Spoiled My Aim, and Other Reflections on Southern Culture

Source: My Tears Spoiled My Aim, and Other Reflections on Southern Culture

“I sometimes don't know what I'm writing when I start writing it, on some level.”

Knows Writing Sometimes Levels

Author:Josh Radnor

“But, yeah, I'm really happy when I'm writing. When I'm being creative and when I have something that I can put down. You know, if you go out and you overhear a conversation or you have a thought, you have a receptacle to go home and say, 'Oh, this would be great in this script.' Your antenna's out in a different way, and I love that time.”

Ifs Knows Way Writing I Can Different Home Would Be Creative Conversation Yeah Scripts Different Ways Be Creative Really Happy Antenna

Author:Josh Radnor

“When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.”

People Knows Writing Firsts Stories Hands Situation Century Originals Familiar Nineteenth Century

Book:Satyajit Ray: Interviews

Source: Satyajit Ray: Interviews

“I don't want my writing to be so unique that when you apply it to different genres, it seems like the previous show that people know you from.”

People Knows Want Writing Different Shows Seems Unique Genre Different Genres

Author:Shawn Ryan

“When I write something that would have made me laugh as a 10-year-old, or would have scared me or would have excited me, I know I'm onto something.”

Knows Writing Years Made Laughing Scared Excited

Author:Jonathan Stroud

“The big ideas always come in flashes. I don't really craft stories that much. I genuinely don't know where these people come from and I've often wondered if writing is just a socially acceptable form of madness.”

People Ifs Knows Writing Ideas Stories Bigs Form Madness Crafts Acceptable Flash Big Ideas

Author:Taiye Selasi

“I do write by hand. I just think - I don't know, it's a physical thing for me. It's a bodily thing. It literally has to earn its way through my hand.”

Thinking Knows Way Writing Hands Physical Things

Author:Elizabeth Strout

“I'm just writing songs about how I feel or about how people I know feel.”

People Knows Feels Writing Song Writing Songs

Author:Elliott Smith

“And I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations. It could be that it would take me 12 more books at six years each to get it - which means I would have to live to be 126. Which I fully intend to do, of course.”

Knows Writing Years Mean Book Courses Given Six Aspiration Take Me Accommodate

Author:George Saunders

“Early on, a story's meaning and rationale seem pretty obvious, but then, as I write it, I realize that I know the meaning/rationale too well, which means that the reader will also know it - and so things have to be ramped up.”

Knows Writing Wells Mean Stories Seems Realizing Reader Obvious Rationale

Book:Tenth of December

Source: Tenth of December

“Well, I am becoming doddering and old but I have - I'm writing two books a year now. It's like 220,000 words or something like finished, and, honest to God, I can't do that. I really do need the help of, you know, other people working with me.”

People Knows Needs Writing Years Wells I Can Two Book Helping Honest Becoming Finished

Author:John Sandford

“Writers have to get used to launching something beautiful and watching it crash and burn. They also have to learn when to let go control, when the work takes off on its own and flies, farther than they ever planned or imagined, to places they didn't know they knew.”

Knows Writing Beautiful Used Letting Go Crash Something Beautiful Launching

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“We fret about words, we writers. Words mean. Words point. They are arrows. Arrows stuck in the rough hide of reality. And the more portentous, more general the word, the more they can also resemble rooms or tunnels. They can expand, or cave in. They can come to be filled with a bad smell. They will often remind us of other rooms, where we'd rather dwell or where we think we are already living. They can be spaces we lose the art or the wisdom of inhabiting. And eventually those volumes of mental intention we no longer know how to inhabit will be abandoned, boarded up, closed down.”

Thinking Knows Writing Mean Art Reality Loses Space Rooms Know How Filled Intention Smell Stuck Rough Abandoned Volume Caves Arrows Tunnels Mean Words

Author:Susan Sontag

“There's a phrase, "sitzfleisch", which means just plain sitting on your ass and getting it done. Just showing up for work. My uncle Raphael was a painter, and he used to say, "If the muse is late for work, start without her". You have to be there. You have to be there, and do it, and grind it out, even when it is grinding and you know you're probably going to rewrite all this tomorrow.”

Ifs Knows Writing Mean Done Used Tomorrow Late Sitting Ass Painter Phrases Muse Uncles Grind Showing Up Raphael

Author:Peter S. Beagle

“Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.”

Knows Giving Writing Has Beens Pain Heaven Hours Chance Journey Reader Bitter Heartache Relaxation Tedium Bitter Experience

Book:The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence

“You can't know what a book is about until the very end. This is true of a book we're reading or writing.”

Knows Writing Book Ends Reading Reading Or Writing

Author:Lynda Barry

“Hell man, I know very well you didn't come to me only to want to become a writer, and after all what do I really know about it except that you've got to stick to it with the energy of a benny addict.”

Knows Men Want Writing Wells Energy Hell Sticks Addict

Book:The Portable Jack Kerouac

Source: The Portable Jack Kerouac

“The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it's about and why you're doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising ("but of course that's why he was doing that, and that means that...") and it's magic and wonderful and strange.”

“All the fantasy writers I know have a way of dwelling on their own fears and phobias. A writer spends his life being his own psychiatrist.”

Knows Way Writing Fantasy Dwelling Psychiatrist Phobia

Author:Charles Beaumont

“Honestly, as hard a profession as acting is, I think music is even harder. Acting, you're like a leech, because someone else does the hard part for you. They write it for you, then the director tells you what to do. You really just need to know how to pay attention, follow instructions.”

Thinking Knows Needs Writing Doe Hard Pay Acting Attention Know How Directors Music Is Harder Profession Honestly Pay Attention Instruction Leeches

Author:Michael Shannon

“I have a certain sensibility that I bring to my writing that comes from knowing two things: what I as a reader like to read, and what as a writer I am capable of. I know my own limits. I know there are things I cannot do.”

Knows Writing Two Certain My Own Knowing Reader Limits Capable Two Things Sensibility

Author:Paullina Simons

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