Good Writing Quotes - Page 4

• There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Writing, Rewriting

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• Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Heart, Men

  Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature, originally delivered December 10, 1950 in Stockholm Sweden

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• Good writing is good writing no matter what genre you're writing in, and I believe that there are only a handful of fundamental craft tools that are essential for any genre-including nonfiction.

  Georgia Heard

  Believe, Writing, Essentials

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• Good writing is about finding and exploiting anecdotes that resonate with the reader. In storytelling, it's OK if you only make one point, as long as it's a good one.

  Ben Clymer

  Writing, Long, Anecdotes

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• Good writing is like a bomb: it explodes in the face of the reader.

  Nuruddin Farah

  Writing, Bombs, Faces

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• When you've got good writing, you can kind of give up all the research, in a way, and start just following the emotional integrity of the journey of your character.

  Linus Roache

  Giving Up, Integrity, Writing

  "Interview: Linus Roache discusses his ‘Vikings’ King and his ‘Blacklist’ Kingmaker". Interview with Daniel Fienberg, uproxx.com. April 3, 2014.

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• I just hope that readers and publishers continue to appreciate good writing and good storytelling in all their various forms. And I hope that people continue to read books, even though we have so many other options for entertainment.

  Karen Thompson Walker

  Book, Writing, People

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• You have to read a lot so you know what good writing looks like and you get inspired. You have to write a lot because it's like a sport - you have to practice. And, also, you have to persevere. Don't give up. I got rejected on my first book, like, 14 times, but I just kept going. So believe in yourself and don't give up.

  Rick Riordan

  Sports, Giving Up, Book

  Source: starraptureblog.wordpress.com

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• It may be observed of good writing, as of good blood, that it is much easier to say what it is composed of than to compose it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Blood, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.9

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• Like with anything, good writing suggest itself pretty strongly.

  Martin Freeman

  Writing

  "Martin Freeman Talks FARGO, Finding the Character, Lester’s Breaking Point, SHERLOCK, and More". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. May 27, 2014.

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• Good writing is writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Sometimes, it happens to work right away, and that's amazing. But most of the time, it happens to work, and then you rewrite and rewrite and rewrite, and maybe it even comes back to the thing it was in the first place, but then you know for sure that it is good, and it's what you wanted to do.

  Kate Beaton

  Writing, Firsts, Sometimes

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Good writing happens when human beings follow particular steps to take control of their sentences-to make their words do what they want them to do.

  Ralph Fletcher

  Writing, Want, Steps

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• I think the benefit of being a writer is that I'm looking for the subtext on the page, because all good writing has subtext. And as a writer, you look at the big scope of things, the big story, rather than just your individual story line, because I think it's important to know what you're in and how you fit into it.

  Richard Dormer

  Writing, Thinking, Important

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• Good writing is difficult no matter what the reader's age-and children deserve the best.

  Aaron Shepard

  Children, Writing, Age

  Aaron Shepard (2000). “The Business of Writing for Children”, p.11, Shepard Publications

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• Good writing is about telling the truth.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, Telling The Truth, Needs And Wants

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.3, Anchor

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• Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author.

  William Zinsser

  Reading, Writing, Next

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.5, Harper Collins

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• I have a very healthy appetite for good writing and good characters. Having weak writing is my biggest fear.

  Michael K. Williams

  Writing, Character, Healthy

  Source: collider.com

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• Good writing and dark wit always excite me and they come together thrillingly in this book. It has a quiet grip on the strangeness of the interior and exterior worlds of love and politics. I delighted in the writing and the scope.

  Jenny Diski

  Book, Writing, Dark

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• It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a scream pierced the air'. . . . Good writing takes enormous concentration.

  Charles M. Schulz

  Writing, Dark, Night

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• There are so many burning issues to be dealt with that it's completely understandable and natural that a character is struggling with these issues themselves. In that struggle, you inform the audience. The thing about this writing is that it's very easy to learn. Good writing always is.

  Colm Meaney

  Struggle, Writing, Character

  Source: collider.com

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• Sometime really good writing does you a disservice as an actor. Because you can get lazy. It's doing a lot of the work for you. I guess that's good. But at the same time with material that's not so good, you have to be more inventive, because no thought has been applied to it.

  Meryl Streep

  Writing, Lazy, Doe

  "The Meryl Streep Doubt Interview: The Devil Wears A Habit". Interview with Prairie Miller, newsblaze.com. November 26, 2008.

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• Bad writing is not easier than good writing. It's just as hard to make a toilet seat as it is a castle window. Only the view is different.

  Ben Hecht

  Writing, Views, Castles

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• Good writing never soothes or comforts. It is no prescription, neither is it diversionary, although it can and should enchant while it explodes in the reader's face.

  Joy Williams

  Writing, Comfort, Faces

  Joy Williams (2015). “Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals”, p.181, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, Sheep, Needs

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.3, Anchor

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• To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. That’s just the act of all good writing.

  William Gibson

  Real, Writing, World

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