Quotes About Writing

Some of what I wrote bordered on blasphemy....If there was a God, He would have to be truth. And in that case, candor--however impertinent--would be more pleasing to Him than posturing.

I know. I'm lazy. But I made myself a New Years resolution that I would write myself something really special. Which means I have 'til December, right?

While I was in bed, I thought about journals. I'd never kept one. I'd never given them much thought. Was there a comfort in them? There must be, or people wouldn't bother with them. Still, I wasn't sure I could imagine where such comfort would be hiding.

It is true that novelists are shameless and obey no decent law, and they are not to be trusted on any account, but some Mysteries even they must honor.

We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.

she had saved herself for this, stored her love within her so that this book, which could not possibly have been written for any purpose but to crawl inside her and dwell there like a holy thing, so that this book would not be ashamed of her profligacy.

What is it, Master Calligrapher, that little girls do in the way that spiders weave?" sleeve asked primly. The Calligrapher coughed, for his room was very dusty, and there was dust even on his eyelashes, and said: "It is right and proper," he said, "for a girl to read as many books as there are bricks in this city, and then, when she is finished, to begin to write new ones which are made out of the old ones, as this city is made of those stones.

The calligrapher coughed, for his room was very dusty, and there was dust even on his eyelashes, and said: "It is right and proper," he said, "for a girl to read as many books as there are bricks in this city, and then, when she is finished, to begin to write new ones which are made out of the old ones, as this city is made of those stones.

When it's time to settle into the serial monogamy inherent in writing a book (although, between you and me, I secretly practice biblio-polygamy—I can't help myself)

What would Jesus do with this gift of writing, this God-given love of writing? What would He write?

My mother had always taught me to write about my feelings instead of sharing really personal things with others, so I spent many evenings writing in my diary, eating everything in the kitchen and waiting for Mr. Wrong to call.

I began to wonder if writers don't choose to love long-distance, a sure way of blending passion and prose. The love letter seems perfectly suited to the contradiction of a writer's life... the love letter may be the emblem of a vocation that demands solitude but desires communication.

Readers, teachers, and editors told me in so many words that I should write whatever felt true to my heart but that since I was Asian, I might as well stick to the subject of Asians, even though no one cared about Asians, but what choice did I have since if I wrote about, say, nature, no one would care because I was an Asian person writing about nature?

I always thought my physical identity was the problem, but writing made me realize that even without myself present, I still couldn't rise above myself, which pitched me into a kind of despair.

stay in your lane" politics in which artists and writers are asked to speak only from their personal ethnic experiences. Such a politics not only assumes racial identity is pure—while ignoring the messy lived realities in which racial groups overlap—but reduces racial identity to intellectual property.

I kept waiting to fall in love with Salinger's cramped, desultory writing until I was annoyed.

Even to declare that I'm writing for myself would still mean I'm writing to a part of me that wants to please white people. I didn't know how to escape it.

Writing is a family trade like anything else: you are more entitled to the profession if your ancestors have already set up shop.

I hate when instruction books, blogs or well-meaning friends tell you "just get over it!" or "just write!"   Like that didn't occur to you. Like all it would take is someone pointing out that say, you should just stop doing that thing you've been doing all your life.   "You mean I should just sit down and write? My God, that's brilliant! Why have I not thought of this before? Thank you, oh sage guru!

How could an unlearned youth such as White write with such wisdom and resignation, while I, brimful of philosophy and book learning, was unable to still my heart into patience?

I never promised I would write the truth. I

La pensée se glace en se traduisant en phrases.

Als je het opschrijft, staat het meteen op papier ook.

Neen: je plicht doen, dat was alles wat er overbleef... En die plicht was: proberen het boek te voltooien, tegen beter weten in, want wie werd iets wijzer van wat ik opschreef? Maar áf moest het, vind ik zelf, áf... voordat ik voorgoed in de alkohol kopje onder zoude gaan en eindelijk de enige verlossing zoude vinden die bestond: de Dood...