Best writing & thinking Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“We writers don't really think about whether what we write is good or not. It's too much to worry about. We just put the words down, trying to get them right, operating by some inner sense of pitch and proportion, and from time to time, we stick the stuff in an envelope and ship it to an editor.”

Thinking Writing Trying Stuff Worry Too Much Sticks Ships Proportion Editors Envelopes

Author:Garrison Keillor

“To read and to write. Some writers have to be told to write. They think their job is to meet agents and have experiences and they can just be rich and famous. Their job is to write. Some really don't realize that. And you can't write unless you read.”

Thinking Writing Jobs Realizing Rich Agents

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“I do think that there's art that is tortured, but I prefer art that has the joy in it.”

Thinking Writing Art Joy

Author:Josh Ritter

“Here's my answer to the very real existential crisis that grips me midway through everything I've ever tried to do: I think stories help us fight the nihilistic urges that constantly threaten to consume us.”

Thinking Writing Real Helping Stories Fighting Answers Crisis Urges Existential Existential Crisis Midway

Author:John Green

“The single most important technique for making progress is to write ten words. Doesn't matter if you're badly stuck, or your day is completely jam-packed, or you're away from your computer - carry a small paper notebook and write a sentence of description while you're waiting on line at a coffee shop. I think of this as baiting a hook. Even if you have a few days in a row where nothing comes except those ten words, I find that as long as you have to think about the novel enough to write ten words, the chances are that more will come.”

“I'm afraid of coaching, of writer's classes, of writer's magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble - you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step.”

Thinking Knows Giving Writing Book Able Language Answers Walks Steps Class Trouble Feet Give Me Magazines Coaching Yarn Centipedes

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“I don't for one second think about the possibility of censorship when I am writing a new book. I know I am a person who cares about kids and who cares about truth and I am guided by my own instincts, and trust them.”

Thinking Knows Writing Persons Book Care Kids My Own Possibility Instinct Censorship Who Cares New Books

Author:Lois Lowry

“I tend not to think about audience when I'm writing. Many people who read "The Giver" now have their own kids who are reading it. Even from the beginning, the book attracted an audience beyond a child audience.”

People Thinking Writing Children Book Kids Reading Audience Giver

Author:Lois Lowry

“You usually find me writing what I like to think of as intelligent summer action and genre films.”

Thinking Writing Action Film Summer Intelligent Genre Find Me

Author:Max Landis

“I think a lot of people think that my parents' deaths is why I write such sad songs, but that's not true. Those songs may just be the woman I am.”

People Thinking Writing May Song Parent Sad Song

Author:Shelby Lynne

“However far fiction writers stray from their own lives and experiences - and I stray pretty far from mine - I think, ultimately, that we may be writing what we need to write in some way, albeit unconsciously.”

Thinking Way Needs Writing May Fiction Mines Fiction Writers

Author:Wally Lamb

“I think I write fiction for the opportunity to get beyond the limits of my own life.”

Thinking Writing Opportunity My Own Fiction Limits My Own Life

Author:Wally Lamb

“I love working with male actors, and I think there's a tendency to write really interesting characters that would work solely alongside men where they would be in a man's world and have to deal with that, and it creates a lot of interesting storylines. For me, it's kind of circumstantial, but I definitely enjoy it.”

Thinking Men World Writing Kind Character Would Be Actors Enjoy Interesting Deals Males Tendencies Really Interesting Interesting Characters Storyline

Author:Elisabeth Moss

“When I was in college, I did do some writing of poetry, somewhat inspired, I think at that time, by Carl Sandburg, because English was still relatively new to me, and Sandburg, of course, wrote in a very easy-to-understand, very colloquial and informal manner.”

Thinking Writing Stills Courses Easy College Inspired

Author:Lisel Mueller

“I think by definition you need to have lived a little bit to write anything that's humanly true.”

Thinking Needs Writing Littles Bits Little Bit Definitions

Author:Richard K. Morgan

“What I write, if you have to label it, is crossover, and I think that much of the stuff that is called children's or YA is in fact crossover and is equally valid for anyone who likes to read fantasy.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Children Facts Stuff Fantasy Likes Labels Crossover

Author:Robin McKinley

“I have epiphanies all the time, because I'm always thinking. I'm a thinker. I'm always writing poetry, I'm always coming to conclusions.”

Thinking Writing Conclusion Thinker Epiphany Writing Poetry Always Thinking

Author:Chrisette Michele

“I think my dyslexia was a vital part of my development because my inability to read and write meant that I had to find knowledge elsewhere so I looked to the cinema.”

Thinking Writing Development Cinema Elsewhere Inability Dyslexia

Author:Joe Wright

“My dream role is to portray someone like James Baldwin. I've always been a fan of his writing, and I feel like he's one of our unsung heroes. He's been pretty much forgotten, and I think he needs to be recognized. He had to go all the way to Europe to find recognition and acceptance, and I'd just like to bring him to the forefront.”

Thinking Way Needs Feels Writing Dream Roles Fans Acceptance Hero Europe Forgotten Recognition Unsung Hero

Author:Michael K. Williams

“I certainly didn't say while writing 'Gossip Girl,' 'Oh this is going to be big!' It was really like, 'Oh god, everyone's gong to hate these people! They're so bratty!' But I actually think what is so appealing about them is the humor in them.”

People Thinking Writing Bigs Hate Girl Gossip Gongs Gossip Girl

Author:Cecily von Ziegesar

“It's hard to say when my interest in writing began, or how. My mother read to my sister and me every night, and we always loved playing make-believe games. I had a well-primed imagination. I didn't start thinking about writing as a serious pursuit, a career I could have, until after college.”

Thinking Writing Believe Wells Hard Mother Night Games Interest Imagination Careers College Serious Pursuit My Sister Every Night Make Believe Playing Make Believe

Author:Sara Zarr

“MindSparks has produced some of the best materials on the market for teaching students how to read and write history with intellectual integrity and depth. Rarely have I come across curriculum so useful in helping students become literate, thinking citizens. Bravo.”

Thinking Writing Helping Teaching Students Materials Citizens Integrity Intellectual Depth Curriculum Teaching Students Bravo

Author:Sam Wineburg

“I'm always thinking of stuff; I just don't sit down and write it. I come up with material more as I go along; if something funny happens, I'll make a note of it on my phone.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Happens Stuff Materials Down And Notes Phones Come Up Always Thinking

Author:Wanda Sykes

“I find it quite difficult to think that there's, you know, about 20 million people listening to my album that I wrote very selfishly to get over a breakup. I didn't write it being that it's going to be a hit.”

People Thinking Knows Writing Difficult Millions Listening Albums Breakup Get Over

Author:Adele

“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

“It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing. I don’t think the novels of Jane Austen could have been written by a man nor the stories of Ernest Hemingway by a woman, and in the same way I believe the author of the James Tiptree stories is male.”

Thinking Men Way Writing Believe Has Beens Stories I Believe Novel Written Theory Female Males Absurd Masculine Could Have Been Jane Austen

Author:Robert Silverberg

“I think Taylor Swift is a really good artist. I feel like her personality shines through everything she does, her music, her fashion, her style. She won Album of the Year, and she’s a really good writer. I’m a song writer so I respect artists who write their own songs. She won Album of the Year when she was 18 or something like that so, I think she’s dope.”

Thinking Feels Writing Years Doe Artist Song Fashion Style Personality Shining Albums Dope Good Writers Like Her Good Art Good Artist

Author:Mike Posner

“If you're writing about a character, if he's a powerful character, unless you give him vulnerability I don't think he'll be as interesting to the reader.”

Ifs Thinking Giving Writing Character Interesting Powerful Reader Vulnerability

Book:Stan Lee's Chakra The Invincible Free Comic Book Day Special 2015

Source: Stan Lee's Chakra The Invincible Free Comic Book Day Special 2015

“The challenge to writers today, I think, is not to disown any part of our heritage. Whatever our theme in writing, it is old and tried. Whatever our place, it has been visited by the stranger, it will never be new again. It is only the vision that can be new; but that is enough.”

Thinking Writing Has Beens Enough Today Challenges Vision Stranger Theme Heritage

Author:Eudora Welty

“Write every day, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later.”

Thinking Writing Remember Written Habit Keep Going

Author:Jane Smiley

“I spent many years trying to write a lot like Ben Folds or John Lennon or Rivers Cuomo. I think that's healthy when you're learning to write and seeing how chords fit together and how songs take shape.”

Thinking Writing Trying Years Together Song Seeing Fit Healthy Shapes Rivers Chords Folds Lennon

Author:Andrew Dost

“I think either you're creative or you're not. In general, I don't think you need to be in pain to actually be creative unless you're writing love songs. Then you might need to have some ups and downs within your emotions to start to capture that.”

Thinking Needs Writing Might Pain Song Emotion Creative Capture Be Creative Ups & Downs Writing Love Writing Love Songs

Author:Curtis Jackson

“Y'see, I get so bored so easily. I like to start with a clean slate each time. Sure, I'll have characters drop in and out of books but the main cast of characters always changes. Maybe I'm wrong but I think if had the same joe detective guy or gal, I wouldn't write them as well; I wouldn't do as good a job.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Wells Book Character Jobs Guy Clean Casts Bored Detectives Slate Gals Clean Slate So Bored

Author:Carl Hiaasen

“I do so much revising as I go along; I wonder how I could write books if I hadn't grown up in the computer age. I think I'd be a very different writer. I find myself cutting and pasting, changing things around and deleting whole paragraphs constantly.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Book Different Whole Age Wonder Cutting Computer Paragraph Revising Deleting

Author:Megan McCafferty

“You and I who read and write books have very little effect upon language. We may think about it, write about it, and read about it, but it goes on without us, or in spite of us.”

Thinking Writing May Littles Book Language Effects Goes On Spite

Author:Charlton Laird

“It is setting goals and trying to be a business person, but at the same time not losing sight of who you are writing songs for and what your goals are as a songwriter. So believe me, if you think I've got it down I don't it is a constant struggle.”

“I think if you're writing from the heart, very often, the subject matter will adjust as you age... but you try to write the best song you can possibly write. For us, we have the same basic elements that make up the America sound.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Trying Heart Matter Age America Song Sound Subjects Elements Subject Matter Writing From The Heart

Author:Gerry Beckley

“Another thing that's quite different in writing a book as a practicing newspaperman is that if you look at what you've written the next morning and you think you didn't get it quite right, you can fix it.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Looks Book Different Next Morning Written Writing A Book

Author:Adam Clymer

“I think that most people who write about music just want to fill some paper. They're not really interested in getting to the heart of something. Otherwise, they wouldn't write what they write.”

People Thinking Want Writing Heart Paper

Author:Tim Gane

“The way that I sort of direct the writers is, let's do the best story we can. Let's not worry about production issues. 'How much will that cost? How are we going to shoot that?' Let's not set up those constraints on the writing. I don't think it helps the project to work like that.”

Thinking Way Writing Helping Stories Worry Issues Cost Projects Direct Productions Do The Best Constraints

Author:Jose Padilha

“I think they thought it was very arrogant of me to write the end of my seven books series when I didn't have a publisher and no-one had heard of me”

Thinking Writing Book Ends Heard Series Seven Arrogance Arrogant Publishers

Author:J. K. Rowling

“It is my entire visual art practice: I eat, sleep, think, write about and do drawing.”

Thinking Writing Art Sleep Practice Drawing Visuals Visual Art

Author:Deanna Petherbridge

“Compelling a man by law to pay his money to elect candidates or advocate law or doctrines he is against differs only in degree, if at all, from compelling him by law to speak for a candidate, a party, or a cause he is against. The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.”

People Ifs Thinking Men Writing Firsts Country Reason Government Law Speak Wish Causes Party Pay Liberty Degrees Worship Doctrine Command Candidates Amendments Compelling First Amendment

Author:Hugo Black

“The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.”

People Thinking Writing Firsts Country Reason Government Speak Wish Liberty Worship Command Amendments First Amendment

Author:Hugo Black

“The very best parts of me go into my writing, it is the best version of myself, and I don't think it's hubristic to believe that that's worth something, worth someone else's time. It's the most I have to offer the world.”

Thinking World Writing Believe Offers Versions

Author:Jami Attenberg

“I like to think of myself at home in the armchair, writing, smoking and occasionally wandering down the shop.”

Thinking Writing Home Wander Smoking Shops Marijuana Armchairs

Author:Stephen Fry

“Public art existed all along, but ecological art just naturally grew out of my thinking and writings in that area for years. I didn't get involved in it; I started what then became a movement.”

Thinking Writing Years Art Movement Grew Involved Areas Get Involved Ecological Public Art

Author:Agnes Denes

“Acting becomes my real job, writing becomes my second job, and then when I turn 50, I think I'm going to open up an interior decorating company.”

Thinking Writing Real Jobs Turns Acting Company Interiors Real Jobs Decorating Interior Decorating

Author:Ester Dean

“I just think, as writers, especially with a book that takes years to write, you sort of wake up every morning hoping and praying that you can make it work for the day.”

Thinking Writing Years Book Morning Praying Wake Up Every Morning

Author:Christopher Bollen

“So many people think that social studies and weird lessons in social studies, teaching kids in America are bad, is it the result of Common Core? And it's not. It's not. Common Core does not deal with social studies. It's basically writing and math.”

People Thinking Writing Doe Kids America Social Results Deals Common Study Teaching Lessons Math Core Social Studies Teaching Kids Common Core

Author:Megyn Kelly

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