Quotes About Writing

was careful, then, to present myself as just another immigrant, glad to be in the land where the pursuit of happiness was guaranteed in writing, which, when one comes to think about it, is not such a great deal. Now a guarantee of happiness—that's a great deal. But a guarantee to be allowed to pursue the jackpot of happiness? Merely an opportunity to buy a lottery ticket.

They send him away and no one ever sees him again. That's what happens to writers who put their names on things.

I think of the novelist Haruki Murakami, who compares writing a novel to digging a hole through deep rock to reach a source of water.

Writing was entering into fog, feeling my way for a route from this world to the unearthly world of words, a route easier to find on some day that others. Lurking on my shoulder as I stumbled was the parrot of a question, asking me how I lived and he died.

You might want to intellectualize your intentions, "I'm doing an allegory on the state of modern man in relation to the inherent dignity of the human soul." That's great. Save it for the interview after your movie is a hit. To write it, think in terms of one man, not mankind. Ask yourself, "Suppose event x happens to him. What would my hero do about it?

Sometimes i write the best about the things that I care about least

I am a writer. Books are my home and words are my friends.

By changing writing patterns we simultaneously reconfigure the neuropathways in the brain that record our self-image.

My gut feeling about sequels is that they should be premeditated: You should try to write a trilogy first or at least sketch out a trilogy if you have any faith in your film.

Now and then when I am writing, I automatically do a small drawing, such as I sent you lately. I did one this morning representing Elijah in the desert under an orange sky, with some hawthorns in the foreground. It is nothing special, but I see it all so clearly before me, and I think that at such moments I could speak about it enthusiastically - may it be given me to do so later on.

I am writing to Russell at the same time. I think we know, don't we, that the English, the Yankees, have this much in common with the Dutch, that their charity…is very Christian. Now, the rest of us not being very good Christians…That's what I can't put out of my head writing again like this.

Neither Gauguin nor Bernard has written again. I think that Gauguin doesn't care a damn about it, because it isn't going to be done at once, and I for my part, seeing that Gauguin has managed to muddle along by himself for six months, am ceasing to believe in the urgent necessity of helping him.

I was doing just fine on my own before the old man died and Lisa came storming back into my life. I was writing, building my audience, travelling, not thinking about fire, not thinking about Lisa as much as I used to. David Bourenhem was of zero concern to me. I was free. I'll say it again: I . . . was . . . free. But now the old paranoia has raised its ugly, scarred head again. The paranoia, the obsessions, the bad habits. The fire. They're all sneaking back into my life.

The real prayer is your own soul-tending. It's not the writing that needs prayer - it's you. You need to find the center that is still and strengthening. You need to deal with whatever issue is dogging you today, whether it's anxiety about your teenager or resistance to the topic you are trying to write.

Good writing is emotionally honest but does not get stuck in the emotion.

Accept that you will never be objective enough to judge your personal writing very well. During

When a writer takes on the task of exploring the world of the spirit, she has invited a process that will change her permanently. If she has done her work well, it will change her readers too.

If you want to be an authentic writer, learn to tell the truth, to wrestle with it, to reflect on it, and then to write about it with great care. And great humility.

If you have writer's block, dig into it. You are resisting something. Something is getting in the way of your creative work. Resistance always means something.

afternoon,' wrote an American correspondent

Because I don't think I have a handle on how to write for grown-ups. The grown-up publishing world is so fraught with one-upsmanship, scorn and snobbery. I did write an adult novel. Thank goodness it went out of print. I think we kids' authors still start out with hope every morning. We honor our audience.

I know why writers write- they write to untangle the knots in their hearts.

There are times in the writing of history when we must use words we personally abhor.

Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.