1,322 quotes found
“The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is no...”
“I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint; every line in the dirt like a secret message.”
“Look, don't just stare at the pages," I used to tell my students. "Become the characters. Live inside the book.”
“I was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was given the time and space to work, but someone who wrote as a course of life. Maybe writing ...”
“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the mus...”
“I think no more than a week after I started writing I ran into the first block. It's hard to describe it in a way that will be understandable to anyone who is not a neurotic. I will try. All my lif...”
“I write out of revenge.”
“But this I know; the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master--something that at times strangely wills and works for itself. He may lay down rules and ...”
“I write description in longhand because that's hardest for me and you're closer to the paper when you work by hand, but I use the typewriter for dialogue because people speak like a typewriter works.”
“Seperti apakah Anda? Menurut saya, paling tidak Anda adalah apa yang Anda tulis.”
“Toby: All right. It couldn't have gone far, right?Sam: No.Toby: Somewhere in this building...is our talent. ”
“First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write ...”
“What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutel...”
“No iron can stab the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.”
“A day in which I don't write leaves a taste of ashes.”
“Writing's a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won't rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.”
“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair ... Come to it any way but lightly.”
“First draft: let it run. Turn all the knobs up to 11. Second draft: hell. Cut it down and cut it into shape. Third draft: comb its nose and blow its hair. I usually find that most of the book will ...”
“You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.”
“People who read your ideas tend to think that your writings reflect your life.”
