Young Writers Quotes - Page 2

• I think the path for a young writer might be one that says, "I have to accept myself, this is what I am. I can't eradicate my defects. I can work on them."

  George Saunders

  Thinking, Might, Path

  Source: therumpus.net

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• And so, when I was a young writer I always worked hard on imagery, and I knew that the roots of imagery were the senses - and that if my readers could feel, taste and see what I was talking about, I would be able to tell them a story.

  Adriana Trigiani

  Talking, Roots, Taste

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• When people ask, "Is there any advice you'd give a young writer?," I say write short stories. They afford lots of failure. Pastiche is a great way to start.

  Ian Mcewan

  Writing, People, Giving

  Ian McEwan, Ryan Roberts (2010). “Conversations with Ian McEwan”, Univ Pr of Mississippi

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• Young writers if they are to mature require a period of between three and seven years in which to live down their promise. Promise is like the mediaeval hangman who after settling the noose, pushed his victim off the platform and jumped on his back, his weight acting a drop while his jockeying arms prevented the unfortunate from loosening the rope. When he judged him dead he dropped to the ground.

  Cyril Connolly

  Writing, Years, Promise

  Cyril Connolly (2008). “Enemies of Promise”, p.109, University of Chicago Press

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• Elizabeth Searle writes with intelligence, passion and wit. She's one of the best young writers around.

  Robert Boswell

  Passion, Writing, Wit

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• The advice I continually give to young writers is this, "Learn to paint pictures with words." Not just once upon a time, but ... In the long secret dust of ages, beneath a blue forgotten sky, where trade winds caress the sun bleached shores of unknown realms ... See, as much as there are words in poetry, there is a poetry in words. Use it, stay faithful to the path you have set your heart upon and follow it.

  Brian Jacques

  Heart, Writing, Blue

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• It's not possible to advise a young writer because every young writer is so different. You might say, "Read," but a writer can read too much and be paralyzed. Or, "Don't read, don't think, just write," and the result could be a mountain of drivel. If you're going to be a writer you'll probably take a lot of wrong turns and then one day just end up writing something you have to write, then getting it better and better just because you want it to be better, and even when you get old and think, "There must be something else people do," you won't be able to quit.

  Alice Munro

  Writing, Thinking, People

  FaceBook post by Alice Munro from Jul 09, 2011

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• One is always enthralled, I think, when a young writer you're just beginning to read and comprehend dies.

  Joy Williams

  Thinking, Young, Dies

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• Every young writer, I imagine, has their first intellectual magazine, whose essays and articles are devoured all the more greedily for being slightly over one's head. Mine was First Things.

  Ross Douthat

  Intellectual, Magazines, Firsts

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• I guess the important thing for young writers is to read.

  Paul Auster

  Important, Young, Important Things

  Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. November 5, 2009.

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• The best young writers are convinced they need blurbs from famous writers before an editor will even read the first page of a manuscript. If this is true, then the editorial system that prevails today stinks. And let's start reforming it.

  Diane Wakoski

  Editors, Needs, Pages

  Diane Wakoski (1980). “Toward a new poetry”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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• This is what drives a young writer out of his head, this feeling that nothing is being said.

  William Saroyan

  Feelings, Said, Young

  William Saroyan (1934). “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and Other Stories”, New Directions Publishing

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• Well, when I was a young writer the people we read were Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sartre, Camus, Celine, Malraux. And to begin with, I was a bit of a copycat writer and very derivative and tried to write a novel using their voices, really.... I keep it out of print.

  Mordecai Richler

  Writing, Voice, People

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• I've grown up on a diet of metaphors. If young writers would find those writers who can give them metaphors by the bushel and the peck, then they'll become better writers - to learn how to capsualize things and present them in metaphorical form.

  Ray Bradbury

  Giving, Metaphor, Form

  Source: www.jasonmarchi.com

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• The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them. A young writer must cross many psychological barriers to acquire confidence in his capacity to produce good work-especially his first full-length book-and he cannot do this by staring at a piece of blank paper, searching for the perfect sentence.

  Paul Johnson

  Book, Writing, Perfect

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• Of course at that point I had no idea that the adventure was only beginning and that the struggle and the rejections were to pile before me, a typical young writer, in an implacable mountain. But I was on my way.

  Vera Nazarian

  Struggle, Adventure, Ideas

  Source: fantasyworlds.wordpress.com

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• I am not a writer, but I feel that when our production company is successful, we'll be able to give some young writers with fresh voices an opportunity to put their work out there.

  Viola Davis

  Successful, Opportunity, Voice

  Source: aalbc.com

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• I think I would have been a lot more miserable and discovered a lot less of things I liked if I hadn't had LiveJournal in high school. I think it's interesting how blogging seems to be shaping a new generation of writers. I feel like growing up with the Internet/blogging/other structures seems to be a reason for the similarities people see in Tao Lin's writing and other young writers, rather than direct.

  Marie Calloway

  Growing Up, School, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

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• In my travels I am often asked if college stifles young writers. In my opinion, it doesn't stifle them enough.

  Flannery O'Connor

  College, Opinion, Enough

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• Then you have people coming up like Malcolm Bradbury, a relatively young writer who deals with the academic scene and deals with it, I think, brilliantly.

  William Golding

  Thinking, People, Academic

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• But it's clear to me that us slow-poke writers are a dying breed. It's amazing how thoroughly my young writing students have internalized the new machine rhythm, the rush many of my young writers are in to publish. The majority don't want to sit on a book for four, five years. The majority don't want to listen to the silence inside and outside for their artistic imprimatur. The majority want to publish fast, publish now.

  Junot Diaz

  Book, Writing, Years

  Interview with Gina Frangello, therumpus.net. September 30, 2012.

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• All of us ambitious young writers hoped to have a cover story in Esquire, of course. The idea was to write the best, most entertaining article that you can.

  Laurence Shames

  Writing, Ideas, Ambitious

  Source: classic.esquire.com

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• Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment.

  Doris Lessing

  Advice, Judgment, Young

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• I always ask young writers, 'Are you certain you want to be a writer? If you're absolutely sure, then do it.' If you really want to write, writing has to take precedence over everything else, except for taking care of your loved ones. It has to be more important than any possession, more important than fame. We hear about just a few writers who get famous, but most of them don't. It's got to mean more than that.

  Herbert Gold

  Writing, Mean, Important

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• My advice to young writers would be to write every day, even if it is only a few words. Get yourself on the habit of writing and it will become a lifelong one. And find a place to write where you are physically comfortable. You can't concentrate if you aren't. Ernest Hemingway could only write standing up, and Truman Capote could only write lying down!

  Cassandra Clare

  Lying, Writing, Advice

  Source: www.glamour.com

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