Best Written Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“When a song wants to be written, it will be written.”

“I want to write such things as compel the admiring acclamation of the world at large, such things as are written but once in years, things subtle but distinctly different from the books written every day.”

World Want Writing Years Book Different Written Subtle Admiring

Book:Human Days: A Mary MacLane Reader

Source: Human Days: A Mary MacLane Reader

“Here is the operating motto of the Obama White House: 'So let it be written, so let it be done!' Like Yul Brynner's Pharaoh Ramses character in Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments,' the demander in chief stands with arms akimbo issuing daily edicts to his constitution-subverting minions.”

Done Character House White Written Arms Ten Constitution Chiefs White House Commandments Motto Ten Commandments Pharaohs Minions

Author:Michelle Malkin

“Literature gives us a window into other people's experiences in other places, in other times, so I thought it would be really interesting to investigate how different people had written about motherhood, and childhood.”

People Giving Different Would Be Literature Interesting Written Childhood Window Motherhood Different Peoples Really Interesting

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

“Once I've written a song, I sometimes refine them.”

Sometimes Song Written

Author:Roger McGuinn

“I respond very well to well-written material and women who have had an effect on society, something tragic or monumental has happened to them.”

Wells Written Happened Effects Materials Tragic Well Written

Author:Samantha Morton

“I tell myself I write because I want to say something true and original about the nature of evil. That is very ambitious - to say something about the human condition that hasn't been written before. Probably I will never succeed but that is what I strive to do.”

Want Writing Humans Evil Written Conditions Succeed Originals Strive Human Condition Ambitious Nature Of Evil

Author:Jo Nesbo

“Many Scandinavian writers who had made their name in literary fiction felt they wanted to have a go at the crime novel to show they could compete with the best. If Salman Rushdie had been Norwegian, he would definitely have written at least one thriller.”

Ifs Made Shows Wanted Names Felt Fiction Novel Written Crime Thrillers Norwegians Scandinavians Scandinavia Crime Novels Rushdie

Author:Jo Nesbo

“I've written a song for Prince. I never showed it to Prince, but just to see if I could do it. At the time, when I sort of knew him, he was recording a song a day. I wondered if I could do that. So I wrote it.”

Ifs Song Written If I Could

Author:Randy Newman

“I've written some great things. That's a gift, but there's consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.”

Suffering Written Consequence Yeah Great Things Great Work

Author:Frank Ocean

“You write it down because finally, when it's written down you do get it out of your system somewhat.”

Writing Written

Author:Leo Ornstein

“To mourn is to wonder at the strangeness that grief is not written all over your face in bruised hieroglyphics. And it's also to feel, quite powerfully, that you're not allowed to descend into the deepest fathom of your grief - that to do so would be taboo somehow.”

Feels Would Be Faces Grief Wonder Written Over You Your Face Taboo Mourn Strangeness Fathom Bruised Hieroglyphics

Author:Meghan O'Rourke

“I've always written about animals. I'm still trying to process why that is.”

Trying Stills Process Animal Written

Author:Tea Obreht

“You're every love song ever written.”

Song Written Profound

Author:Rod Stewart

“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

“The Holy Spirit is no skeptic. He has written neither doubt nor mere opinion into our hearts, but rather solid assurances, which are more sure and solid than all experience and even life itself.”

Heart Spirit Spirituality Opinion Doubt Written Holy Mere Holy Spirit Assurance Skeptic

Author:Martin Luther

“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

“It is the Jews who originated biblical exegesis (a critical analysis of the Bible), just as they were the first to criticize the forms and doctrines of Christianity...Truly has Darmesteter written: 'The Jew was the apostle of unbelief, and every revolt of mind originated with him.'”

Mind Firsts Form Christianity Written Jew Critical Doctrine Analysis Criticize Biblical Apostles Revolt Unbelief Exegesis Critical Analysis

Author:Bernard Lazare

“The full history of the interlocking participation of the Imperial German Government and international finance in the destruction of the Russian Empire is not yet written...It is not a mere coincidence that at the notorious meeting held at Stockholm in 1916, between the former Russian Minister of the Interior, Protopopoff, and the German Agents, the German Foreign Office was represented by Mr. Warburg, whose two brothers were members of the international banking firm, Kuhn, Loeb and Company, of which the late Mr. Jacob Schiff was a senior member.”

“Catch me on a good day, I think half of my books aren't too bad. Catch me on a bad day, I think I've never written a good line.”

Thinking Book Lines Half Written Good Day Bad Day Catch Me

Author:Dennis Lehane

“What helped me most were my failures and slumps - when I couldn't get work, people weren't interested in me or had written me off.”

People Written Slumps

Author:Frank Langella

“The picture alone, without the written word, leaves half the story untold.”

Stories Half Written Written Word Half The Story

Author:James Lafferty

“What you're doing is putting into professional play the way that you relate to other people, the way that you analyze and relate to a written text, the way that you would persuade anybody to do anything. It has to do with listening, with humility and a sense of yourself.”

People Way Play Written Humility Listening Relate

Author:Trevor Nunn

“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

“I've been with Life now for seventeen years and I have written several articles for them and will be doing more writing and do at least two assignments a year besides my writing.”

Writing Years Two Written Articles Assignments Seventeen

Author:Gordon Parks

“I've written probably over 200 songs that have a verse and a chorus and that's it.”

Song Written Verses Chorus

Author:Hunter Parrish

“I haven't been the kind of writer about whom book-length academic studies have been written.”

Kind Has Beens Book Literature Study Written Havens Length Academic

Author:Manuel Puig

“I have written every one of my novels to convince somebody of something.”

Literature Novel Written Convince

Author:Manuel Puig

“Of course a politician's promise isn't worth the paper it's written on.”

Courses Written Politician Promise Paper Silly Agreement Penalties Project Management Oxymoron Funny Oxymoron Silly Stupid

Author:Russell Pearce

“I've written something and I would like to have my first film directed by the time I'm 30.”

Firsts Film Written

Author:Ryan Phillippe

“There's a lot of artists whose contracts are written in such a way that they do not get paid for what's happening on streaming services.”

Way Artist Written Happenings Paid Contracts Streaming

Author:Sean Parker

“The Wire,' I was such a fan of that show the first season - I think that's the best-written show on TV.”

Thinking Firsts Shows Written Fans Tvs Seasons Wire

Author:Amy Ryan

“Basically everything I've done in art, I was in possession of when I was 20 years old. I use a waste retrieval method of working. I'll go back and use something that disgusted me 15 years ago but that I had enough sense to think about. Some artists change dramatically. I see my work more like history being written.”

Thinking Years Art Done Enough Use Artist Written Waste Years Ago Method Possession Had Enough Disgusted

Author:Edward Ruscha

“I took the first James Kelman novel, 'The Bus Conductor Hines', home to my dad. I thought, 'My dad will like this; it's written in Scots.' But my dad said: 'I can't read that.' He was reading James Bond and John le Carre. That was part of what attracted me to crime - the idea of getting a wide audience.”

Firsts Said I Can Ideas Home Reading Novel Audience Written Crime Dad My Dad Wide Bus Conductor Scots

Author:Ian Rankin

“I've always written. At the age of six or seven, I would get sheets of A4 paper and fold them in half, cut the edges to make a little eight-page booklet, break it up into squares and put in little stick men with little speech bubbles, and I'd have a spy story, a space story and a football story.”

Men Littles Stories Age Space Half Break Cutting Written Football Speech Paper Six Pages Sticks Seven Edges Eight Squares Bubbles Sheets Spy Folds

Author:Ian Rankin

“I sit down and draw from my lyric book. I sit down and start looking through it and see if there is anything that strikes me that I've written.”

Ifs Book Written Draws Down And Strikes

Author:Amy Ray

“I've given some money to the scholarships in the District of Columbia, to the best students in D.C... many of the students have written me letters telling me they could not have afforded to go to college without the scholarship and money I've given them.”

Given Written Students College Letters Scholarship Columbia Best Students

Author:David Rubenstein

“Mostly I work really unconsciously, and I think if the scenes are really well written, which they are, and if I just throw myself into it, I don't really think about it.”

Ifs Thinking Wells Written Scene Well Written

Author:Elizabeth Reaser

“I don't think you can write - at least not well - if you don't love stories, love the written word.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Wells Stories Literature Written Love Story Written Word

Author:Nora Roberts

“I haven't written my memoirs or let the television movie be made about my life.”

Made Written Havens Television Memoir

Author:Sally Ride

“I don't think anyone has written a great graphic novel.”

Thinking Novel Written Graphic Graphic Novels

Author:Ted Rall

“But everything written has style. The list of ingredients on the side of a cornflakes box has style. And everything literary has literary style. And style is integral to a work. How something is told correlates with - more - makes what's being told. A story is its style.”

Stories Sides Written Style Boxes Lists Ingredients Literary Style

Author:Ali Smith

“I liked to think I had written 'scripts' when I was in high school, but looking back at them, they were about thirty pages of wannabe-Mamet dialogue with a staple through them.”

Thinking School Written Pages High School Scripts Dialogue Thirty Looking Back Staples Wannabes

Author:Lorene Scafaria

“Every pilot I've ever written, I've fallen deeply and madly in love with. It's the only way I work.”

Way Written Fallen Pilots Madly In Love

Author:Amy Sherman-Palladino

“Conducting! A subject, truly, concerning which much might be written, yet scarcely anything of real importance is to be found in books.”

Book Real Might Found Written Subjects Importance Conducting

Book:On Conducting

Source: On Conducting

“Clown' was written when I couldn't find anyone who believed in me as an artist. Maybe those labels will think twice next time a young songwriter comes along.”

Thinking Young Artist Next Written Labels Songwriters Next Time Clown Think Twice

Author:Emeli Sande

“Stories, as much as we like to talk about them, retrospectively, as emanations of theme or worldview or intention, occur primarily as technical objects when they're being written. Or at least they do for me. They're the result of thousands of decisions made at speed during revision.”

Made Stories Decision Results Written Objects Intention Speed Theme Worldview Revision Decisions Made

Author:George Saunders

“It is not our job to apply laws that have not yet been written.”

Jobs Law Written

Author:John Paul Stevens

“There isn't a lot written about the motorcycle culture.”

Culture Written Motorcycle

Author:Katey Sagal

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