1,322 quotes found
“A general is like a writer who wants to write a play, or a book, but whom the book itself, with the unexpected options that it reveals at one point, the impasse it presents at another, causes to de...”
“The challenge of the writer is to transform—artistically and imaginatively—a unique personal experience into a universal, meaningful story.”
“Writing takes a pen, a sheet of paper and, to start with, just the shadow of an idea.”
“Writing had never become routine for him, but remained a constant surprise. He was always surprised at how much fun it was, once it all got moving. And never failed to be surprised at how bloody ha...”
“This isn’t a religious book though I mention God, not a medical advisory though I speak of pain. It’s a circus, a mortuary, a grade school, a limousine ride. Will it be worth the paper it’s printed...”
“She was almost felled to the ground by the extraordinary sight which now met her eyes. There was the garden and some birds. The world was going on as usual. All the time she was writing the world h...”
“Then I started to think in Lipp’s about when I had first been able to write a story about losing everything. It was up in Cortina d’Ampezzo when I had come back to join Hadley there after the sprin...”
“I’m feeling a low regarding writing. I sometimes think I should finish working on my book of stripper poetry that I started, but other times I feel like it’s not worth it. Sometimes I think I shoul...”
“People say that writers write for money. From my own experience that's not true. I write for me. I publish for money.”
“I do a lot of rewriting. It’s very painful.”
“... when editors were flattered, they would sometimes give in on some of their mad ideas.”
“First drafts don’t have to be perfect. They just have to be written.”
“You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.”
“Maybe those sailors will write bad poems, but the same men would have kept dull diaries, too. The problem has to do not with the evidence but with the witness. The point is not the adventure but th...”
“I do not think consciously of children [when writing] … I do know that children read me more intelligently than adults do.”
“When I had my girls, I knew what magic felt like for the first time. I had created people who didn't exist before. Now I write for the same reason. Creating people and their life's stories through ...”
“Think much speak little and write less.”
“The best lie is the one that has an element of truth, so it’s good to include something real in your fiction.”
“Most people say, “Show, don’t tell,” but I stand by Show and Tell, because when writers put their work out into the world, they’re like kids bringing their broken unicorns and chewed-up teddy bears...”
“...at seventeen I tried to write poetry confining myself solely to Anglo-Saxon words - don't know if it helped, but it made me more concrete ...”
