Quotes About Writing

Punctuation is meant only to clarify. And fruit off with the little smiley faces.

He left a quote I need—" "A quotation, Mr. Marlow. 'Quote' is a verb. 'Quotation' is a noun.

Bad fiction uses the glossy generality; good writing needs the smattering of detail, the unrelenting busy mystery of the real.

Writing is not a profession, occupation or job; it is not a way of life: it is a comprehensive response to life.

A writer is a person who has solutions for which there are no riddles.

Writing often reveals us to ourselves, lets us name what's important to us and what has been silent or silenced inside us.

A French writer once said that prose is walking, poetry is dancing. That's a fine metaphor for the pleasurable intensification of emotion, language, and rhythm that is at the heart of poetry.

A writer makes a pact with loneliness. It is her, or his, beach on which waves of desire, wild mind, speculation break. In my work, in my life, I am always moving toward and away from aloneness. To write is to refuse to cover up the rawness of being alive, of facing death.

The mind swims laps, memory is cantilevered over genetic turmoil, and the writing goes on as if from unseen instruction, silencing, cleaving, and destabilizing words and thoughts, while the "hum" in me, the human, pushes fragments into the semblance of story.

The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can't fool around. If you write about someone else, you can stretch the truth from here to Finland. If you write about yourself the slightest deviation makes you realize instantly that there may be honor among thieves, but you are just a dirty liar.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book -and does

If you are one of those lucky persons who own a pen that writes underwater, you might try living in a swimming pool.

Authors, such as William Zinsser, Steven Pinker, Natalie Goldberg, and Stephen King, who have all written exquisite books on the art and craft of writing, have reminded me that it is the commitment to the craft that matters the most; the longing to get better and the countless hours of work that go into writing and rewriting. To them I am eternally grateful.

It is imperative that your work habits from school do not make their way into your book writing process. I am talking about the practice of typing the last words just before the deadline every time you would hand in an assignment, a paper, or even a thesis. Your book needs time to mature, and you must allow yourself the luxury of rewriting and editing until you are satisfied.

Writing is a psychological process. It is the process of taking what is in your mind and sharing it with others.

Write a book, not the book.

Are you giving the same advice over and over and over again to clients, patients, pupils, interns or friends? If the answer is yes, you should probably write a book about whatever it is that you keep repeating.

Perfectionism is the enemy of the author. There is a difference between good writing habits and perfectionism. The author who displays good writing habits delivers on time. The aspiring author who is prone to perfectionism will likely never fin...

Do your best to maintain an authentic style of writing. If you are a serious person, be serious. If you are a comic, be funny. Do not choose a style or a tone that is different from the person you really are.

Write until you have nothing left to say and then stop writing. Focus on content and quality rather than word count.

An author who rewrites his own work must essentially be two people. One is the free flowing uncritical writer who creates the bulk of the material—the other is the extremely critical editor whose aim it is to make the book as good as it can become.

You can't take it personally when something you have written sucks. Just delete it and write something else.

I started reading my manuscripts out loud, to hear what they sounded like. If the text flows with little effort, then I am satisfied, but if I keep stumbling and stuttering while I read, then I rewrite.

La vie me fait moins peur.Vous pouvez m'attaquer, vous pouvez me juger, vous pouvez me ruiner. J'aurau toujours à portée de main un vieux bic mâchouillé et un bloc-notes froissé. Mes seules armes. A la fois dérisoires et puissantes. Les seules sur lesquelles j'ai toujours pu compter pour m'aider à traverser la nuit.