Quotes About Writing

Il primo libro sarebbe meglio non averlo mai scritto. Finché il primo libro non è scritto, si possiede quella libertà di cominciare che si può usare una sola volta nella vita, il primo libro già ti definisce mentre tu in realtà sei ancora lontano dall'esser definito; e questa definizione dovrai portartela dietro per la vita, cercando di darne conferma o approfondimento o correzione o smentita, ma mai più riuscendo a prescinderne.

How well I would write if I were not here! If between the white page and the writing of words and stories that take shape and disappear without anyone's ever writing them there were not interposed that uncomfortable partition which is my person!

The author was an invisible point from which the books came

Since I have become a slave of writing, the pleasure of reading has ended for me.

I say to myself that the result of the unnatural effort to which I subject myself, writing, must be the respiration of this reader, the operation of reading turned into a natural process, the current that brings the sentences to graze the filter of her attention, to stop for a moment before being absorbed by the circuits of her mind and disappearing, transformed into her interior ghosts, into what in her is most personal and incommunicable. At

this lightness is something created in the writing, using the linguistic tools of the poet, independent of whatever philosophical doctrine the poet claims to be following.

Mentre attendo che il mondo non scritto si chiarisca ai miei occhi, c'è sempre una pagina scritta a portata di mano, in cui posso tornare a tuffarmi; m'affretto a farlo, con la più grande soddisfazione: là almeno, anche se riesco a capire solo una piccola parte dell'insieme, posso coltivare l'illusione di star tenendo tutto sotto controllo.

Cuánto reposo puede haber en la escritura!

No lo dudes, tu gran carácter carece de secretos para mí, incluso cuando no sé descifrar una palabra, comprendo o creo comprender lo que querías decir con los peculiares trazos de tu pluma

Quizá no es el libro que hubiera querido escribir cuando adolescente, pero definitivamente sí, es el que por aquel entonces quería leer.

I am a writer, not a transcriber.

Fiction writing is great, you can make up almost anything.

In the Bible, God uses several different types of writing to convey his truth. There are narratives (often with commentary), preaching and exhortation (as in the prophets), laws and regulations, the distilled wisdom of Proverbs, philosophical discussion (as in Job and Ecclesiastes), and poetry (as in the Psalms). Poetry has its own ways.

Writing a novel is one of those modern rites of passage, I think, that lead us from an innocent world of contentment, drunkenness, and good humor, to a state of chronic edginess and the perpetual scanning of bank statements.

I love stories where the impossible appears believable, plausible and real. Maybe it's silly, but it's one of the reasons Michael Crichton's writing always appealed to me: he took outlandish ideas and made them seem completely within the realm of possibility. I remember reading "Jurassic Park" and feeling like: "Oh, yeah -- no, that's totally happening right now. They're bringing back dinosaurs!"

I'm working on the Star Wars script today and the people in my office have covered up all my windows with black paper. I guess they wanted to make sure no one could see what I was doing. It seems rather extreme.

Directing's the best part. Whenever I've directed something, there's this feeling of demand and focus that I like. And secondly, it means that you've gotten through all the writing stuff, and the producing stuff, and casting, and prep, and all those stages that are seemingly endless. So directing is sort of the reward for all the work you put in before.

Someone misdirected you [...] Most writers in New York don't do much writing. They spend their time talking and drinking bootleg liquor. That's what we do, at any rate.

I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing," said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle's low grunt and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair. I... must... not... look... like... a... baboon's... backside.

The thing about the 600 words, I mean some day, you can do a very, very, very hard day's work and not write a word, just revising, or you would scribble a few words.

I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself. I never in my wildest dreams expected this popularity.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn't sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours' writing. Nothing.

Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.

Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one clips into an idea to make it run. As happens when one writes: believing whatever has to be believed in order to get the job done.