Manuscripts Quotes - Page 3

• When I knew what I had to do / I took all my notebooks, all my manuscripts / and ate them page by page / so I could take my words with me

  Nicole Blackman

  Notebook, Pages

  Nicole Blackman (2002). “Blood Sugar”, Akashic Books

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• My books piled up before me for my use waiting in space where I placed them, they haven't disappeared, time's left its remnants and qualities for me to use -- my words piled up, my texts, my manuscripts, my loves.

  Allen Ginsberg

  Book, Space, Waiting

  Allen Ginsberg (2001). “Howl and Other Poems: Pocket Poets Number 4”, p.32, City Lights Publishers

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• That a thing made by hand, the work and thought of a single craftsman, can endure much longer than its maker, through centuries in fact, can survive natural catastrophe, neglect, and even mistreatment, has always filled me with wonder. Sometimes in museums, looking at a humble piece of pottery from ancient Persia or Pompeii, or a finely wrought page from a medieval illuminated manuscript toiled over by a nameless monk, or a primitive tool with a carved handle, I am moved to tears. The unknown life of the maker is evanescent in its brevity, but the work of his or her hands and heart remains.

  Susan Vreeland

  Heart, Humble, Hands

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• How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a place that educates, amuses, and enthralls us? It is a miracle. We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.

  Anna Quindlen

  Dream, Reading, Pride

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “How Reading Changed My Life”, p.20, Ballantine Books

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• During the Qin Dynasty, all books not relating to practical concerns such as agriculture or construction were ordered burned by the emperor to guard against "dangerous thought." Whether accounts of zombie attacks perished in the flames will never be known. This obscure section of a medical manuscript, preserved in the wall of an executed Chinese scholar, might be proof of such attacks.

  Max Brooks

  Wall, Book, Flames

  Max Brooks (2003). “The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead”, p.186, Broadway Books

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• What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish.

  Thomas Wolfe

  Writing, Done, Pieces

  Thomas Wolfe (1952). “Selections from the works of Thomas Wolfe”

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• I can't predict how reading habits will change. But I will say that the greatest loss is the paper archive - no more a great stack of manuscripts, letters, and notebooks from a writer's life, but only a tiny pile of disks, little plastic cookies where once were calligraphic marvels.

  Paul Theroux

  Notebook, Reading, Loss

  "Fiction in the Age of E-Books". "The Atlantic" Interview, www.theatlantic.com. 2010.

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• Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

  Samuel Johnson

  Science, Belief, Favourite

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• The question of manuscript changes is very important for literary criticism, the psychology of creation and other aspects of the study of literature.

  Umberto Eco

  Psychology, Criticism, Important

  "Literary game of drafts" by Umberto Eco, www.theguardian.com. March 29, 2002.

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• Edward and I had not had a last grand scene of farewell, nor did I plan one. To speak the word was to make it final. It would be the same as typing the words The End on the last page of a manuscript. So we did not say our goodbyes, and we stayed very close to each other, always touching. Whatever end found us, it would not find us separated.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Goodbye, Farewell, Touching

  Stephenie Meyer (2009). “Breaking Dawn: Twilight”, p.391, Hachette UK

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• Somewhere in the center of my soul, a rusty chain began to unwind. It freed itself, link by link, from where it had rested, unobserved, waiting for him. My hands, which had been balled up and pressed against his chest, unfurled with it. The chain continued to drop, to an unfathomable depth where there was nothing but darkness and Matthew. At last it snapped to its full length, anchoring me to a vampire. Despite the manuscript, despite the fact that my hands contained enough voltage to run a microwave, and despite the photograph, as long as I was connected to him, I was safe.

  Deborah Harkness

  Running, Hands, Long

  Deborah Harkness (2014). “All Souls Trilogy”, p.172, Penguin

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• This was a manuscript of the night we couldn’t read.

  Jack Kerouac

  Night

  Jack Kerouac (1995). “The Portable Jack Kerouac”, Viking Adult

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• The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

  John Y. Campbell

  Home, Writing, Simple

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• A lot of manuscripts that come in, you wonder by what outrageous fantasy the author believes that this should be pressed into print.

  Lawrence Ferlinghetti

  Believe, Fantasy, Wonder

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• You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper, it's not War and Peace anymore; it's comic-book stuff. Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

  Samuel Johnson

  War, Book, Writing

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• Learn punctuation; it is your little drum set, one of the few tools oyu have to signal the reader where the beats and emphases go. (If you get it wrong, any least thing, the editor will throw your manuscript out.) Punctuation is not like musical notation; it doesn't indicate the length of pauses, but instead signifies logical relations. There are all sorts of people out there who know these things very well. You have to be among them even to begin.

  Annie Dillard

  Editors, People, Musical

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• Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

  Arthur Quiller-Couch

  Writing, Pieces, Crafts

  On the Art of Writing "On Style" (1916)

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• The manuscript looks chaotic, even by mathematics standards.

  George Andrews

  Looks, Mathematics, Standards

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• A persistent and age-old instinct makes us want to wander
  Into regions yet untrod
  And read what is still unread
  In the manuscripts of God.

  Willis R. Whitney

  God, Science, Age

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• A scholar is a man with his inconvenience, that, when you ask him his opinion of any matter, he must go home and look up his manuscripts to know.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Home, Men, Looks

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “The Journals”

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• You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls .

  Merce Cunningham

  Dance, Wall, Museums

  Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones, Walker Art Center (1998). “Art performs life: Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones”

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• She praised his book and he embraced her from gratitude rather than lust, but she didn't let go. Neither did he. She kissed his cheek, his earlobe. For months they'd run their fingers around the hem of their affection without once acknowledging the fabric. The circumference of the world tightened to what their arms encompassed. She sat on the desk, between the columns of read and unread manuscript, and pulled him toward her by his index fingers.

  Anthony Marra

  Letting Go, Running, Gratitude

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• Defeat is for the valiant. Only they will know the honour of losing and the joy of winning I am not here to tell you that defeat is a part of life: we all know that. Only the defeated know Love. Because it is in the realm of love that we fight our first battles – and generally lose. I am here to tell you that there are people who have never been defeated. They are the ones who never fought. They managed to avoid scars, humiliations, feelings of helplessness, as well as those moments when even warriors doubt the existence of God.’’ Manuscript Found In Accra – Paulo Coelho

  Paulo Coelho

  Fighting, Warrior, Winning

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• This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Editors, Appreciate

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• The point is, I can’t tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how not to: Give in to the shame of being rejected and put your manuscript—or painting, song, voice, dance moves, [insert passion here]—in the coffin that is your bedside drawer and close it for good. I guarantee you that it won’t take you anywhere. Or you could do what this writer did: Give in to your obsession instead.

  Kathryn Stockett

  Song, Moving, Passion

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