Quotes About Writing

I did not write it. (Uncle Tom's Cabin) God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.

The power of fictitious writing, for good as well as for evil, is a thing which ought most seriously to be reflected upon.

Writing derives from an accumulation of experience. It's as if you collect facts and observations over time, like a stone to stand on. From there, imagination takes over.

Alone in her apartment, writing or thinking on her own, everything was always clear. It was talking aloud, interacting with people that tripped her up: It was reality she found difficult

When I was confronted with official tuition, the academic thing, I could see no relationship whatever between that and the music I'd been writing since I was 11.

My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering, you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet. And then your friends say: It's terrific!

Writing is traveling through uncharted territory - your mind. You are the first traveler, and your essays are the world's first maps.

Two bits of advice. One, always write what you love. Two, always write what the market wants. It's not that those two things are in opposition really. It's just that you have to find an intersection between the two. Writing an unmarketable book just strikes me as silly. Writing a book you don't love – now that would be evil.

If you ignore the part-time or self-published component of the survey, and look only at full-time, traditionally published authors, incomes look a little better Ã¢â'¬â€œ though at $20,300 annually, you are going to need a trust fund, a rich partner or a sideline in computer fraud to make ends meet. The same basic picture applies in the UK and elsewhere.

Well, I had this little notion - I started writing when I was eleven, writing poetry. I was passionately addicted to it it was my great refuge through adolescence.

My next project is to get back to that. Actually, to learn how to write poetry. I'm not kidding.

I struggle each day not to let the fear of the censor poison my writing. Where the censor rules, a dull sameness creeps into books.

Wie jeder Mensch hat auch ein Buchstabe eine Seele und einen Körper. Seine Seele ist das, was er sagt, und sein Körper ist das, woraus er gemacht ist: aus Tinte oder aus Stein.

Wanneer de schrijver niets anders doet dan zijn ervaringen en hersenschimmen neerschrijven, is hij geen schrijver maar een verteller: iemand, die iets verliest. Van belang is alleen wat er op het papier gebeurt, in de vormgeving, datgene, wat hij niet had voorzien, datgene, wat hij niet wist, datgene, wat hij niet was, datgene, wat hij vindt: dat alleen is creatie.

Schrijven is stratenmaken: op je knieën liggen en achteruit kruipen.

Ik ben van plan een verhaal te schrijven, waarin een vent bezig is een verhaal te schrijven. En in het verhaal, dat die tweede vent schrijft is ook een vent bezig een verhaal te schrijven. En in het verhaal weer, dat die vent schrijft, is weer een vent bezig een verhaal te schrijven, en zo tot in het oneindige. En weet je nu wie die vent is, die het verhaal schrijft in het verhaal van de oneindigste vent? ... Ik.

Houd je een vulpen in je hand, dan wordt de inkt warm. De inkt komt net zo warm als je bloed op het papier en dat moet je hebben.

Gelukkig is het geschrevene iets dat hoorbaar is zonder gehoord te hoeven worden. Zelfs het bescheidenste woordje dat ik neerschrijf, het woordje "zwijgen" bijvoorbeeld, overstemt het inferno in die stenen put.

Write a page a day and you'll have a complete novel in year.

And inasmuch as the bridge is a symbol of all such poetry as I am interested in writing it is my present fancy that a year from now I'll be more contented working in an office than ever before.

There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.

When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It's like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.

Every writer has his writing technique - what he can and can't do to describe something like war or history. I'm not good at writing about those things, but I try because I feel it is necessary to write that kind of thing.

I don't know how many good books I still have in me I hope there are another four or five.