156 quotes found
“A writers brain is like a magicians hat. If youre going to get anything out of it, you have to put something in it first”
“A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.”
“I assure you, I've come to one of those natural breaks in the book, where one can walk away and let things go on working in the subconscious. It's true, don't look so unbelieving. It means I can af...”
“Writin Is Fightin'!”
“He, the true writer, is the department store dummy at the very center of the whole establishment, the one left alone on display all night, a price tag stapled to every piece of clothing theyve yank...”
“Some of the best characters are the most flawed characters.”
“Tell it fast before you get scared and silence yourself. Youll never wish youd held back a little more.”
“Why do writers write? Why do actors act? Why do painters paint? It doesn't pay much, unless you're very successful. It's who we are.”
“Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a very dirty peanut across the floor with your nose.”
“To become a WRITER I had to learn to INTERRUPT, to speak up, to speak a little louder, and then LOUDER, and then to just speak in my own voice which is NOT LOUD AT ALL.”
“To sit down so often with nothing to say,-to say something so often, almost without consciousness of saying and without any remembrance or having said,-is a power of which I will not violate my mod...”
“It seemed to me then that to have published a book - any kind of book - would be the greatest possible happiness I could ask from life.”
“Never take yourself too seriously. Learn to let go and let the words flow.”
“If you really have talent, you know, you'll go on writing - whatever people say to you.”
“My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.”
“The hardest thing about being a writer is convincing your wife that lying on the sofa is work.”
“Predictions are uttered by prophets (free of charge); by clairvoyants (who usually charge a fee, and are therefore more honored in their day than prophets); and by futurologists (salaried). Predict...”
“Womens fiction doesnt sound like anything but a slur to my ears.”
“You say grace before meals. I say grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
“Images are not quite ideas, they are stiller than that, with less implication outside themselves. And they are not myth, they do not have the explanatory power; they are nearer to pure story. Nor a...”
