“Don't ever quit. Never quit. Never show anybody you're hurt. Grin and walk through the cannon smoke. It will drive them up the wall. You always stay true to your own principles. You always believe in your gift. God doesn't make mistakes when he presents someone with a gift like that. It's there for a reason. Tell the naysayers, those who reject you, to drop dead! Who cares?” WritingBelieveReasonShowsCareHurtWalksMistakePrinciplesWallQuittingSmokeMaking MistakesRejectsBelieve In YouWho CaresNever QuitAlways BelieveStay TrueCannonsNaysayersRejects You Author:James Lee Burke
“Re: Robert Montgomery's Poems His writing bears the same relation to poetry which a Turkey carpet bears to a picture. There are colours in the Turkey carpet out of which a picture might be made. There are words in Mr. Montgomery's writing which, when disposed in certain orders and combinations,have made, and will make again, good poetry. But, as they now stand, they seem to be put together on principle in such a manner as to give no image of anything in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth.” GivingWritingMadeSeemsMightEarthTogetherCertainOrderHeavenWaterPrinciplesBearsRelationCombinationColourTurkeysCarpetMontgomeryGood Poetry Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
“One of the things I keep coming back to in my writing is that society doesn't work on this mirror principle - you don't have an exact replica on the left of what you have on the right. It just doesn't work that way.” WayWritingLeftPrinciplesMirrorsComing BackReplica Author:Thomas Frank
“Most of the complexity of the stories has developed as the stories came along (and may be a product of the principle that "nothing is what it seems"). I did start with some essential ambiguousness in the aliens' motivation and the questions this raises in human minds, which I consider to have been disregarded in Contact (novel and film). That, in part, may be what has delayed the writing of the fifth and sixth novelettes in the series.” WritingMindHumansMayHas BeensStoriesSeemsFilmMotivationPrinciplesNovelProductsEssentialsRaisesSeriesContactAliensComplexityHuman MindFifthAmbiguityDelayedDisregarded Author:James Gunn
“Close reading of tough-minded writing is still the best, cheapest, and quickest method known for learning to think for yourself... Reading, and rigorous discussion of that reading in a way that obliges you to formulate a position and support it against objections, is an operational definition of education... reading, analysis, and discussion is the way we develop reliable judgment, the principle way we come to penetrate covert movements behind the facade of public appearances.” ThinkingWayWritingStillsReadingBehindsKnownPrinciplesSupportMovementPositionJudgmentToughMethodDefinitionsAppearanceDiscussionAnalysisPenetrateObjectionsFacadeCovertThink For YourselfClose Reading Author:John Taylor Gatto
“In the nineteenth century one had to give all sorts of guarantees and lead an exemplary life in order to cleanse oneself in the eyes of the bourgeois of the sin of writing, for literature is, in essence, heresy. The situation has not changed except that it is now the Communists, that is, the qualified representatives of the proletariat, who as a matter of principle regard the writer as suspect.” GivingWritingMatterEyeOrderLiteratureSinSituationPrinciplesCenturyChangedEssenceRegardOneselfGuaranteesSuspectsCommunistRepresentativesQualifiedHeresyBourgeoisNineteenth CenturyProletariatExemplary Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
“My books are based on the "what if" principle. "What if you became invisible?" or "What if you did change into your mother for one day?" I then take it from there. Each book takes several months in the long process of writing, rewriting, writing, rewriting, and each has its own set of problems. The one thing I dislike about the writing process is the sometimes-loneliness of it all. Readers only get to see the glamour part of a bound book, not some of the agonizing moments one has while constructing it.” IfsWritingLongBookSometimesMomentsProblemMotherProcessPrinciplesOne ThingLonelinessMonthsReaderOne DayBoundsInvisibleWhat IfDislikeWriting ProcessGlamourRewritingAgonizing Author:Mary Rodgers