Writing A Book Quotes - Page 3

• The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. It is the sensation of a stunt pilot's turning barrel rolls, or an inchworm's blind rearing from a stem in search of a route. At its worst, it feels like alligator wrestling, at the level of the sentence.

  Annie Dillard

  Book, Wrestling, Writing

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• Doctoral training is devoted almost entirely to learning to do research, even though most Ph.Ds who enter academic life spend far more time teaching than they do conducting experiments or writing books.

  Derek Bok

  Book, Teaching, Writing

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• Remember, don't start trying to relax; that is the most absurd thing in the world. And there are many stupid people writing books about relaxation. I have come across one book - the name of the book is YOU MUST RELAX! Now that very word 'must' is enough to keep you tense. Relaxation cannot be a "must," it cannot be an effort.

  Rajneesh

  Stupid, Book, Writing

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• Anybody who likes writing a book is an idiot. Because it's impossible; it's like having a homework assignment every stinking day until it's done. And by the time you get it in, it's done and you're sitting there reading it, and you realize the 12,000 things you didn't do. I mean, writing isn't fun. It's never been fun.

  Lewis Black

  Fun, Book, Reading

  Interview with Amelie Gillette, tv.avclub.com. June 7, 2006.

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• Sugar Ray and talked about doing some articles together or writing a book together but dealing with Sugar Ray was a lot like fighting him. He would fake you in and then he'd drop you.

  Dick Schaap

  Fake People, Book, Writing

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• It was a wonderful time to be young. The 1960s didn't end until about 1976. We all believed in Make Love Not War - we were idealistic innocents, darling, despite the drugs and sex. We were sweet lovely people who wanted to throw out all the staid institutions who placed money and wars above all else. When you're young you think that's how life works. None of us were famous, we were broke. We didn't think they'd be writing books about us in 30 years. We were just kids doing the right thing.

  Margot Kidder

  Sweet, Sex, War

  “No kidding” by Chris Roberts, www.theguardian.com. April 8, 2005.

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• I hope I am not too old to take it up seriously, nor too stupid about machines to qualify as a commercial pilot. I do not feel like spending the rest of my life writing books that no one will read. It is not as though I wanted to write them.

  Samuel Beckett

  Stupid, Book, Writing

  "The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 1, 1929-1940". Book by Samuel Beckett, 2009.

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• I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don't have a lot of sympathy for because I'm just going to be with them too long.

  Richard Russo

  Sympathy, Book, Writing

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• When you are writing a book, it feels as if you are simply concentrating on the world of the book and that whatever is happening in your personal life is outside the room, as it were. But maybe that's just the way you have to talk to yourself to make it possible.

  Salman Rushdie

  Book, Writing, World

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• When I'm writing books, something weird happens; and the result is the books contain a large amount of what you could call 'supernaturalism.' As a writer, I find I need that to explain the world I'm writing about.

  Salman Rushdie

  Book, Writing, Needs

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• When I'm writing a book, sentence by sentence, I'm not thinking theoretically. I'm just trying to work out the story from inside the characters I've got.

  Salman Rushdie

  Book, Writing, Character

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• A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book, and he said, 'Have you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.' Because they're fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That's the challenge.

  Elmore Leonard

  Fun, Book, Writing

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• There is the myth that writing books for children is easier than writing books for grownups, whereas we know that truly great books for children are works of genius, whether it's 'Alice in Wonderland' or the 'Gruffalo' or 'Northern Lights.' When it's a great book, it's a great book, whether it's for children or not.

  Michael Morpurgo

  Children, Book, Writing

  "Frank Lampard, good children's stories aren't easy wins" by Emine Saner, www.theguardian.com. February 13, 2013.

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• The difference between writing a book and being on television is the difference between conceiving a child and having a baby made in a test tube.

  Norman Mailer

  Baby, Children, Book

  1971 'The Siege of Mailer: Hero to Historian', in Village Voice, 21 Jan.

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• I started writing the book without realizing I was writing a book. That sounds stupid, but it's true. I'd been trying and failing to make a different manuscript work, and I thought I was just taking a break by writing some short stories. I'm not a very good short story writer - the amazing compression that is required for short stories doesn't come easily to me. But anyway, I thought I'd try to write some short stories. And a structure took shape - I stumbled upon it.

  Ayana Mathis

  Stupid, Book, Writing

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I don't think there's much point in bemoaning the state of the world unless there's some way you can think of to improve it. Otherwise, don't bother writing a book; go and find a tropical island and lie in the sun.

  Peter Singer

  Art, Lying, Book

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• Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.

  Elmore Leonard

  Book, Writing, Please

  "Elmore Leonard’s Secret: 'Clean Living, and a Fast Outfield'". Interview with Jon Wiener, lareviewofbooks.org. August 20, 2013.

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• Don't you think it's rather nice to think that we're in a book that God's writing? If I were writing a book, I might make mistakes. But God knows how to make the story end just right--in the way that's best for us." Do you really believe that, Mother?" Peter asked quietly. Yes," she said, "I do believe it--almost always--except when I'm so sad that I can't believe anything. But even when I don't believe it, I know it's true--and I try to believe it.

  E. Nesbit

  Mother, Mistake, Nice

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• I think every professor and writer is in some way an exhibitionist because his or her normal activity is a theatrical one. When you give a lesson the situation is the same as writing a book. You have to capture the attention, the complicity of your audience.

  Umberto Eco

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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• I worked at magazines for over 10 years before I even thought of writing a book.

  Dave Eggers

  Book, Writing, Years

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• The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can’t fool around. If you write about someone else, you can stretch the truth from here to Finland. If you write about yourself the slightest deviation makes you realize instantly that there may be honor among thieves, but you are just a dirty liar.

  Groucho Marx

  Funny, Witty, Liars

  Groucho Marx (2009). “Groucho And Me”, p.28, Da Capo Press

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• When you're writing a book, you don't want it to be overly trendy because you want people to enjoy it for years and refer back to it.

  Lauren Conrad

  Book, Writing, Years

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• Writing books is fun because after I do a show for a couple hours, I'm in a bus for 22 hours. It's not hard for me to look out the window and tell a joke here and there.

  Willie Nelson

  Couple, Fun, Book

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• I started writing books for children because I could illustrate them myself and because, in my innocence, I thought they'd be easier.

  Mark Haddon

  Children, Book, Writing

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• Well I've been writing books. So that, by its nature, is kind of a solitary occupation. And from time to time I have research help, but mostly I've done those completely on my own.

  Caroline Kennedy

  Book, Writing, Done

  Interview with Nicholas Confessore, David M. Halbfinger, www.nytimes.com. December 27, 2008.

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