Orson Scott Card Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Editing, Space

  Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.33, Macmillan

• Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear.

  Orson Scott Card

  Book, Writing, Heart

  Orson Scott Card (2009). “Children of the Mind”, p.202, Macmillan

• Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Past, Ideas

• Short stories are designed to deliver their impact in as few pages as possible. A tremendous amount is left out, and a good short story writer learns to include only the most essential information.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Impact, Story Writers

• Writing sessions can last an hour or sixteen hours, depending on how it's going.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Sixteen, Lasts

• The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that I'm just plain not talented or skilful enough to write. That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try.

  Orson Scott Card

  Pain, Failure, Book

  "Speaker for the Dead". Book by Orson Scott Card, August 15, 1994.

• There is no society that does not highly value fictional storytelling. Ever.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Doe, Storytelling

• I learned to separate the story from the writing, probably the most important thing that any storyteller has to learn-that there are a thousand right ways to tell a story, and ten million wrong ones, and you're a lot more likely to find one of the latter than the former your first time through the tale.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Important, Stories

  Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.20, Macmillan

• You can't write a novel all at once, any more than you can swallow a whale in one gulp. You do have to break it up into smaller chunks. But those smaller chunks aren't good old familiar short stories. Novels aren't built out of short stories. They are built out of scenes.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Whales, Stories

• Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Past, Ideas

• Oh, Val," said Father. "All you have to do is live your life, and everyone around you will be happier." "No greatness, then." "Val," said Mother, "goodness trumps greatness any day." "Not in the history books," said Valentine. "Then the wrong people are writing history, aren't they?" said Father.

  Orson Scott Card

  Mother, Father, Valentine

  Orson Scott Card (2013). “Ender's Game Boxed Set II: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Speak for the Dead”, p.393, Tor Science Fiction

• Writer’s block is my unconscious mind telling me that something I’ve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what I’ve already written so that when I write it again, it is believable and interesting to me. Then I can go on. Writer’s block is never solved by forcing oneself to “write through it,” because you haven’t solved the problem that caused your unconscious mind to rebel against the story, so it still won’t work – for you or for the reader.

  Orson Scott Card

  Block, Writing, Interesting

• When I write fiction, I create characters whose views are not my own, and I allow them to be eloquent in defense of their, not my, views.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Character, Views

  Actusf Interview, www.actusf.com. 2000.

• And if you're going to criticize me for not finishing the whole thing and tying it up in a bow for you, why, do us both a favor and write your own damn book, only have the decency to call it a romance instead of a history, because history's got no bows on it, only frayed ends of ribbons and knots that can't be untied. It ain't a pretty package, but then it's not your birthday that I know of so I'm under no obligation to give you a gift.

  Orson Scott Card

  Book, Writing, Giving

  Orson Scott Card (1996). “Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.8, Macmillan

• I listen to music constantly while writing.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Concentration, Listening To Music

• ...You believe that the kind of story you want to tell might be best received by the science fiction and fantasy audience. I hope you're right, because in many ways this is the best audience in the world to write for. They're open-minded and intelligent. They want to think as well as feel, understand as well as dream. Above all, they want to be led into places that no one has ever visited before. It's a privilege to tell stories to these readers, and an honour when they applaud the tale you tell.

  Orson Scott Card

  Dream, Believe, Writing

• But in the meantime I became accustomed to the writing life and it would be hard to change now - partly because of the salary cut if I went to my other love, teaching; and partly because I still have stories to tell, even though it isn't all that fun doing the work anymore.

  Orson Scott Card

  Fun, Teaching, Writing

• I buy way too many books.

  Orson Scott Card

  Book, Writing, Way

• I fell into playwriting accidentally, took some classes in it, and also took creative writing classes, but I really didn't expect it to be a career because I didn't believe there was a way to make money as a playwright without being lucky and I didn't feel particularly lucky.

  Orson Scott Card

  Believe, Writing, Class

• There is more good writing and good acting in any ten minutes of Twister than in, say, all of Citizen Kane.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, House, Acting

• You grow a whole lot more as a writer by getting old stories out of the house and letting new ones come in and live with you until they grow up and are ready to go. Don't let the old ones stay there and grow fat and cranky and eat all the food out of the refrigerator. You have dozens of generations of stories inside you, but the only way to make room for the new ones is to write the old ones and mail them off.

  Orson Scott Card

  Growing Up, Writing, House

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin