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Writing Quotes

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Writing Quotes

“One ought to sink to the bottom of the sea, probably, and live alone with one's words.”

Writing Sea Ought Bottom

Book:Mrs. Dalloway

Source: Mrs. Dalloway

“I think a lot of young aspiring writers get misdirected; they think 'I ought to write this, even though I enjoy reading that'. What you have to do is write what you enjoy reading.”

Thinking Writing Young Reading Enjoy Ought Aspiring Writers

Author:Jeffery Deaver

“Philosophy can forsake too easily the details of experience… many writers and painters have demonstrated that thinking long about what art is or ought to be ruins the power to write or paint.”

Thinking Writing Long Art Philosophy Ought Art Is Paint Photographer Details Painter Ruins Forsake

Book:Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values

Source: Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values

“So, you see, it's a real chore for me to write a book review because it's like a contest. It's like I'm writing that book review for every bad book reviewer I've ever known and it's a way of saying [thrusts a middle finger into the air] this is how you ought to do it. I like to rub their noses in it.”

Way Writing Book Real Known Air Middle Ought Fingers Noses Reviews Contests Thrust Chores Reviewers Book Review Middle Finger

Author:John Irving

“The man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic -- the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done.”

Ifs Men World Writing Doe Done He Man Ought Mere Critics Doers

Author:Theodore Roosevelt

“I have nothing but myself to write about, no facts, no theories, no opinions, no adventures, no sentiments, nothing but my own poor barren individualism, of considerable interest to me, but I do not know why I should presume it will be so to you. Egotism is not tiresome, or it ought not to be, if one is sincere about oneself; but it is so hard to be sincere. Well, never mind, I mean to be, and you know me well enough to see through me when I am humbugging.”

Ifs Knows Should Writing Mind Wells Mean Hard Enough Facts Interest My Own Poor Opinion Adventure Theory Ought Oneself Sincere Sentiments Individualism Know Me Egotism Barren Tiresome

Book:The Nemesis of Faith

Source: The Nemesis of Faith

“The news today about 'Atomic bombs' is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope 'this will ensure peace'. But one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in. Well we're in God's hands. But He does not look kindly on Babel-builders.”

“Railing in other men may be a crime, But ought to pass for mere instinct in him: Instinct he follows and no further knows, For to write verse with him is to transprose.”

Knows Men Writing May Crime Ought Mere Instinct Verses

Book:Poetical Works: With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes

Source: Poetical Works: With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes

“What concerns me alone I only think, what concerns my friends I tell them, what can be of interest to only a limited public I write, and what the world ought to know is printed.”

Thinking Knows World Writing Interest Ought My Friends Concern Printed Me Alone

Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg