Quotes About Writing

Poetry is something that happens in universities, in creative writing programs or in English departments.

It's very hard to write humor.

And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.

What I had not realized then, but now know only too well, is that sparks carry within them the wish to be relieved of the burden of brightness. And that is why I no longer write, and why the dark is is my freedom and my happiness.

The most common kind of zine is the personal zine, created by individuals reflecting on their everyday lives-confessional, sometimes mundane, containing even scandalous writings.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

When a German dives into a sentence, you won't see him again until he emerges at the other end with the verb between his teeth.

The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.

I have had a "call" to literature, of a low order—i.e. humorous. It is nothing to be proud of, but it is my strongest suit… seriously scribbling to excite the laughter of God's creatures.

A verb has a hard enough time of it in this world when it is all together. It's downright inhuman to split it up. But that's what those Germans do. They take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it a way over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German.

There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself.

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. 'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

I have a paper cut from writing my suicide note. It's a start.

Panicky despair is an underrated element of writing.

Only one way to cover a story like this, and make that a double, bartender, please.

I, alone, could never have produced this book. I say this mainly in case there are lawsuits.

I probably am a cranky writer, but I am actually a fairly nice, normal person. Since I'm a grouchy writer, of course I have friends whose books are doing way better than mine.

When it came to writing about wine, I did what almost everybody does - faked it

This book has too much plot and not enough story.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.