WRITING QUOTES XXV

quotations about writing

The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't. It's incredibly annoying for us scribblers.

IAIN M. BANKS

"Iain Banks: The Final Interview", The Guardian, June 14, 2013

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The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

WILLIAM H. GASS

A Temple of Texts

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The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. It cheapens and degrades the human experience, when it should inspire and elevate.

TOM WAITS

"Strange Innocence", Vanity Fair, July 2001

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Wearing down seven number-two pencils is a good day's work.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

The Paris Review, spring 1958

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Without a pen in my hand I can't think.

JOHN LE CARRÉ

interview, The Paris Review, summer 1997

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Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind.

EDMUND BURKE

Reflections on the Revolution in France

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Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It's not all inspirational.

JAMES M. CAIN

The Paris Review, spring-summer 1978


You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success -- but only if you persist.

ISAAC ASIMOV

attributed, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead

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A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.

ROALD DAHL

Boy

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Be a mere assistant to your unconscious. Do only half the work. The rest will do itself.

JEAN COCTEAU

Diary of an Unknown

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Belief in one's identity as a poet or writer prior to the acid test of publication is as naïve and harmless as the youthful belief in one's immortality ... and the inevitable disillusionment is just as painful.

DAN SIMMONS

Hyperion


I write what I want to write. Period. I don't write novels-for-hire using media tie-in characters, I don't write suspense novels or thrillers. I write horror. And if no one wants to buy my books, I'll just keep writing them until they do sell--and get a job at Taco Bell in the meantime.

BENTLEY LITTLE

"The Summoning: An Interview with Bentley Little", Giants of the Genre

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I've got splinters in my nose from the best publishing doors in town.

RITA MAE BROWN

interview, Time, March 18, 2008

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I've gotten a little superstitious about listening to music when I write. Once a story is going somewhere, I keep listening to the same music whenever I work on that story. It seems to help me keep in voice, and alternatively, if I need to make some kind of dramatic shift, I'll go and put on something different to shake myself awake.

KELLY LINK

"Words by Flashlight", Sybil's Garage, June 7, 2006

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One never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one can not remember what toothpaste they use; what are their views on interior decoration, and one is stuck utterly. No, major characters emerge; minor ones may be photographed.

GRAHAM GREENE

The Paris Review, autumn 1953


The art of the word is painting + architecture + music.

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

The New Russian Prose

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The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.

THOMAS WOLFE

The Autobiography of an American Novelist


There is absolutely everything in great fiction but a clear answer.

EUDORA WELTY

On Writing

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There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE

Barchester Towers

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To write weekly, to write daily, to write shortly, to write for busy people catching trains in the morning or for tired people coming home in the evening, is a heartbreaking task for men who know good writing from bad. They do it, but instinctively draw out of harm's way anything precious that might be damaged by contact with the public, or anything sharp that might irritate its skin.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

The Common Reader