Writing Quotes - Page 23

• A writer should have another lifetime to see if he's appreciated.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Should Have, Rejection, Appreciated

  Jorge Luis Borges (2013). “Jorge Luis Borges: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations”, p.9, Melville House

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• It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and then write it sentence by sentence - no first draft. I can't write five words but that I change seven.

  Dorothy Parker

  Thinking, Six Months, Stories

  The Paris Review, 1956.

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• An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of many, and grows inveterate in their insane breasts.

  Juvenal

  Insane, Possession, Breasts

  "Satires". Book by Juvenal, VII, line 51, 1890.

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• Many writers profess great exactness in punctuation who never yet made a point.

  George D. Prentice

  Editing, Punctuation, Made

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• We writers have this saying 'Kill your darlings'... but I suppose you family men don't agree with it.

  Mike Pohjola

  Men, Family Man, Darling

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• I want story, wit, music, wryness, color, and a sense of reality in what I read, and I try to get it in what I write.

  John D. MacDonald

  Reality, Color, Trying

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• After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

  Philip Pullman

  Book, Mind, Stories

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• The best books come from someplace deep inside.... Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either.

  Judy Blume

  Book, Character, Care

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• You must write for children the same way you write for adults, only better.

  Maxim Gorky

  Children, Adults, Way

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• The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Ignorance, Editors, Rejection

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• Only in men's imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.

  Joseph Conrad

  Life, Art, Men

  Some Reminiscences ch. 1 (1912)

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• Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.

  Stephen King

  Kings, Imagination, Should

  FaceBook post by Stephen King from Nov 10, 2013

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• Never throw up on an editor.

  Ellen Datlow

  Editors

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• There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place.

  J. K. Rowling

  Inspirational, Inspiring, People

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• Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.

  Henry Watson Fowler

  Simple, Editing, Written Language

  Henry Watson Fowler, Francis George Fowler (1931). “The King's English”, Oxford University Press

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• There are no rules in writing. There are useful principles. Throw them away when they're not useful. But always know what you're throwing away.

  Will Shetterly

  Principles, Throwing, Knows

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• The moment of recognizing your own lack of talent is a flash of genius.

  Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

  Genius, Talent, Moments

  "Unkempt Thoughts" as translated by Jacek Galazka, 1962.

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• I suspect that one of the reasons we create fiction is to make sex exciting.

  Gore Vidal

  Sex, Fiction, Reason

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Sep 17, 2011

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• By writing much, one learns to write well.

  Robert Southey

  Creative Writing, Wells, Creativity And Writing

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• The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly.

  Bernard Malamud

  Moving, Ideas, Pencils

  Bernard Malamud, Lawrence M. Lasher (1991). “Conversations with Bernard Malamud”, p.32, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue.

  Jack Woodford

  Flow, Action, Dialogue

  Jack Woodford (2012). “Trial and Error”, p.177, askmar publishing

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• When you write, you lay out a line of words.
  Soon you find yourself deep in new territory.

  Annie Dillard

  Finding Yourself, Lines, Territory

  Annie Dillard (2009). “The Writing Life”, p.3, Harper Collins

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• If you haven't got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you'll only have to throw away the first three pages.

  William Campbell Gault

  Ideas, Three, Stories

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• Transforming a brand into a socially responsible leader doesn't happen overnight by simply writing new marketing and advertising strategies. It takes effort to identify a vision that your customers will find credible and aligned with their values.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Effort, Leader, Marketing

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• I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.

  George R. R. Martin

  Hate, Book, Character

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