“I have an ambition to write a great book, but that's really a competition with myself. I've noticed that a lot of young writers, people in all media, want to be famous but they don't really want to do anything. I can't think of anything less worth striving for than fame.” PeopleThinkingWantWritingI CanBookYoungMediaFameAmbitionCompetitionStriveGreat BookYoung Writers Author:Zadie Smith
“So if I were talking to a young writer, I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.” IfsSelfYoungTalkingPraiseBlameExtremesPityVanityIndifferenceSelf PityCultivationYoung Writers Author:John Berryman
“If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn’t hesitate to do so.” IfsWritingYoungRefrainYoung Writers Author:Andre Gide
“I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.” ThinkingInspirationalShouldWritingTryingFirstsArtFunnyYoungLiteratureSocialInformationSkillsDegreesResearchGraduationSocial ScienceWelshYoung WritersArts Degrees Author:Irvine Welsh
“I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start off with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That's like starting in at rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft.” TryingBookHelpingStoriesYoungNovelRocksSeriesStartingNineCraftsThese DaysInsightfulClimbingShort StoryEverestRock ClimbingYoung WritersTacklingTrilogiesAspiring WritersMt Everest Author:George R. R. Martin
“As a young writer, I was on guard against the Latina in me, the Spanish in me because as far as I could see the models that were presented to me did not include my world. In fact, 'I was told by one teacher in college that one could only write poetry in the language in which one first said Mother. That left me out of American literature, for sure.” WorldWritingFirstsSaidFactsYoungMotherLiteratureLeftLanguageTeacherCollegeModelsAmerican LiteratureYoung WritersLatina Author:Julia Alvarez
“I still feel the impulse to give young writers a hearing, and I believe I have played more unpublished compositions than any other band leader in the country.” GivingFeelsBelieveStillsCountryYoungI BelieveLeaderBandHearingImpulseCompositionYoung Writers Author:John Philip Sousa
“A workshop is a way of renting an audience, and making sure you're communicating what you think you're communicating. It's so easy as a young writer to think you're been very clear when in fact you haven't.” ThinkingWayFactsYoungEasyAudienceClearHavensCommunicateWorkshopsYoung Writers Author:Octavia Butler
“I think it must be very hard to be one of the new young writers who are urged to put themselves forward when it may be the last thing on earth they'd be good at” ThinkingMayHardEarthLastsYoungBe GoodYoung Writers Author:Anne Tyler
“Young writers should definitely research the current sounds and styles.” ShouldYoungSoundStyleResearchCurrentsYoung Writers Author:Lamont Dozier
“Read Jerrod Edson. He is one of our best young writers.” YoungYoung Writers Author:David Adams Richards
“There must be an alternative between Hollywood and New York, between those two places psychically as well as geographically. The University of Iowa tries to offer such a community, congenial to the young writer, with his uneasiness about writing as an honorable career, or with his excess of ego about calling himself a writer.” WritingTryingWellsTwoYoungCommunityCareersNew YorkCallingOffersEgoHollywoodUniversityAlternativesExcessHonorableIowaYoung WritersUneasiness Author:Paul Engle
“There are plenty of clever young writers. But there is too much genius, not enough talent.” EnoughYoungToo MuchTalentGeniusCleverPlentyYoung Writers Author:J. B. Priestley
“One likes to think one grows as a writer as one ages, else all you get is an old young writer. Beyond that is the changing landscape of the universe and the stories I choose to tell.” ThinkingStoriesAgeYoungUniverseGrowsLikesLandscapeYoung Writers Author:Raymond E. Feist
“And when you get an eminent journal like Time magazine complaining, as it often has, that to the young writers of today life seems short on rewards and that what they write is a product of their own neuroses, in its silly way the magazine is merely stating the status quo and obvious truth. The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.” IfsWayWritingSeemsAgeTodayYoungLiteratureProductsRewardsObviousComplainingSillyBunchMagazinesDullJournalStatus QuoNeuroticNeurosisGood WritingYoung WritersTime MagazineToday Life Author:William Styron
“There are so many talented young writers named Jonathan, with whom by comparison I suffer terribly.” YoungSufferingComparisonYoung Writers Book:I Love You More Than You Know: Essays Source: I Love You More Than You Know: Essays
“I often meet frustrated young writers who say they've only got so far and just can't finish a book. Even if you don't happen to use what you've worked on that day, it has taught you something and you'll be amazed when you might come back to it and use it again.” IfsBookUseMightHappensYoungTaughtFrustratedAmazedYoung Writers Author:Eoin Colfer