Writing Quotes - Page 3

• One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.

  Hart Crane

  Inspirational, Men, Patterns

  Hart Crane (1965). “Letters, 1916-1932”

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• By writing at the instant, the very heartbeat of life is caught.

  Walt Whitman

  Life Is, Heartbeat, Caught

  Walt Whitman (2012). “Memoranda During the War: Civil War Journals, 1863-1865”, p.5, Courier Corporation

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• Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing.

  Sylvia Plath

  Success, Stink, Publishing

  Barry Kyle, Sylvia Plath (1976). “Sylvia Plath, a Dramatic Portrait: Conceived and Adapted from Her Writings, by Barry Kyle”

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• Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

  Isaac Asimov

  Thinking, Fingers

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• The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.

  Stephen King

  Kings, Interesting, Important

  Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”, p.277, Simon and Schuster

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• Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.

  Ann Patchett

  Jobs, Tea, Afternoon

  Ann Patchett (2004). “Truth and Beauty: A Friendship”

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• Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.

  Joseph Pulitzer

  Inspirational, Appreciation, Business

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• A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

  Thomas Mann

  People, Difficult, Writing Stories

  "Essays of Three Decades". Book by Thomas Mann, 1942.

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• If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills you.

  Dorothy Parker

  Facts, Being The Best, Can Do

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• A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Use, Synonym, Spells

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• Writing is the flip side of sex - it's good only when it's over.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Sex, Flip, Sides

  FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Aug 18, 2014

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• Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing.

  Bonnie Friedman

  Successful, Keep Believing, Sentences

  Bonnie Friedman (1993). “Writing past dark: envy, fear, distraction, and other dilemmas in the writer's life”

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• Every word written is a victory against death.

  Michel Butor

  Victory, Written

  "Rapamythi", www.imdb.com. 2010.

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• If you are pointing out one of the things a story is about, then you are very probably right; if you are pointing out the only thing a story is about you are very probably wrong - even if you're the author.

  Neil Gaiman

  Stories, Ifs, Pointing

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• Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long.

  Leonard Bernstein

  Inspiration, Long, Waiting

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• Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.

  John Jakes

  Positive, Being Yourself, Believe

  FaceBook post by John Jakes from Sep 19, 2014

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• When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, 'I am going to produce a work of art.' I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.

  George Orwell

  Art, Lying, Book

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.315, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• No writing is a waste of time – no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good.

  Brenda Ueland

  Imagination, Creative, Feelings

  Brenda Ueland (2013). “If You Want to Write”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

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• Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.

  Harper Lee

  Salt, Exorcism, Please

  "All Harper Lee wanted was to be 'the Jane Austen of South Alabama' - here's how she accomplished that and so much more" by Rachel Gillett, www.businessinsider.com. February 20, 2016.

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• No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Reading, Book, Real Talk

  "The Figure a Poem Makes". Book by Ernest Hemingway, 1939.

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• Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.

  Stephen King

  Thought Provoking, Thesaurus, Hunts

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• If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.

  William Zinsser

  People, Perfection, Hardest

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• Stories are living and dynamic. Stories exist to be exchanged. They are the currency of Human Growth.

  Jean Houston

  Growth, Stories, Currency

  Jean Houston (1987). “The Search for the Beloved: Journeys in Mythology and Sacred Psychology”, Tarcher

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• It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

  William Faulkner

  Moving, Character, Feet

  William Faulkner, Joseph L. Fant, Robert Paul Ashley (1964). “Faulkner at West Point”, p.101, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.

  Jules Renard

  Money, Literature, Ridiculous

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