WRITING QUOTES XXVII

quotations about writing


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A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.

SAUL BELLOW
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Nobel lecture, December 12, 1976


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The most common human act that writing a novel resembles is lying. The working novelist lies daily, very complexly, and at great length.

WILLIAM GIBSON

Twitter post, May 31, 2009

Tags: William Gibson


How one writes is a bit of a mystery to oneself. You just do it. My experience is that I sit down and write and I make it sound right to me, or sound good or interesting. And that's it.

ADAM PHILLIPS

"Poetry as Therapy", The Guardian, March 29, 2012

Tags: Adam Phillips


Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.

MARKUS ZUSAK

"Why I Write", The Guardian, March 28, 2008


Beginning a book is unpleasant. I'm entirely uncertain about the character and the predicament, and a character in his predicament is what I have to begin with. Worse than not knowing your subject is not knowing how to treat it, because that's finally everything. I type out beginnings and they're awful, more of an unconscious parody of my previous book than the breakaway from it that I want. I need something driving down the center of a book, a magnet to draw everything to it--that's what I look for during the first months of writing something new. I often have to write a hundred pages or more before there's a paragraph that's alive. Okay, I say to myself, that's your beginning, start there; that's the first paragraph of the book.

PHILIP ROTH

Paris Review, fall 1984


There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

attributed, Literary Agents: How to Get & Work with the Right One for You

Tags: W. Somerset Maugham


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

ANTHONY TROLLOPE

Barchester Towers

Tags: Anthony Trollope


As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail.

ARISTOTLE

Poetics

Tags: Aristotle


The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.

RAY BRADBURY

Fahrenheit 451


Writing is always a rough translation from wordlessness into words.

CHARLES SIMIC

attributed, Stealing Glimpses: Of Poetry, Poets, and Things in Between


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

JOHN LE CARRÉ

interview, The Paris Review, summer 1997

Tags: John le Carré


First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER

"Furor Scribendi", Bloodchild and Other Stories


Write. Don't talk about writing. Don't tell me about your wonderful story ideas. Don't give me a bunch of "somedays." Plant your ass and scribble, type, keyboard. If you have any talent at all, it will leak out despite your failure to pay attention in English.

GLEN COOK

interview, SF Site, September 2005


Writing is a solitary pursuit and I think you have to be partially at peace with yourself, but it's the other part that's usually producing the stuff worth reading.

CRAIG JOHNSON

"A Conversation with Craig Johnson", The Cold Dish

Tags: Craig Johnson


As a writer -- it must be the same for actors -- you're used to dealing with the idea of death and all the big questions. Unless you're writing purely for five-year-olds, about bunnies, you're going to have to think about death. Your characters will die and people will live on afterwards who cared about them. You need to be able to empathise with them. Of course, we all go through it; we all have people close to us die. But as a writer you really have to think it through properly, or it'll all ring false. It's almost one of the perks of the trade that you're forced to think about that stuff fairly deeply. So maybe when it comes along in real life, you're slightly better prepared to deal with it.

IAIN M. BANKS

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


Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing. It's about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration it creates.

MORDECAI RICHLER

attributed, Mordecai & Me


Writing a killer first line to a novel is an art form in which there are a few masters and a great many apprentices.

CHUCK WENDIG

"25 Things to Know about Writing the First Chapter of Your Novel", Terrible Minds


Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

JOHN LE CARRÉ

attributed, Bad TV: The Very Best of the Very Worst

Tags: John le Carré


I've found it incredibly helpful to make writing a routine. I don't sit down with the intention of creating an article that goes viral or some savvy sales page. I sit down and force myself to get my thoughts out on paper or in my laptop. If we choose the same time everyday our physiology is automatically going to start getting prepared to allow thoughts to flow to paper. After awhile of doing this you might even find that your ideas start coming to you shortly before you're scheduled writing time. I've found myself skipping my morning tea because I had such great ideas/thoughts and wanted to quickly get them out of my head and onto paper.

DANIELLE SABRINA

"5 Habits Holding You Back From Creating Great Content", Huffington Post, February 29, 2016


When you're writing, let's say, an essay for a magazine, you try to tell the truth at every moment. You do your best to quote people accurately and get everything right. Writing a novel is a break from that: freedom. When you're writing a novel, you are in charge; you can beef things up.

NICHOLSON BAKER

interview, Interview Magazine, September 16, 2013

Tags: Nicholson Baker