Quotes About Writing

The incessant driving of the pen over paper causes intense fatigue of the hand and the whole arm because of the continuous ... strain on the muscles and tendons.

I'm trying to do what Frank O'Hara did and remind myself there there's a lot of good stuff. I write about New York for my own mental health.

When we commit ourselves to writing for some part of each day, we are happier, more enlightened, alive, light-hearted and generous to everyone else. Even our health improves.

Worry destroys the ability to write. Ill health is bad in the ratio that it produces worry which attacks your subconscious and destroys your reserves.

You could tie my hands to my sides, I suppose, but I have to write. For my own mental health, I need to write.

In my career as a writer, I preferred to avoid current events: I wrote young adult novels and book reviews and lifestyle journalism about health and parenting and other such evergreens.

I struggled in the beginning. I said I was going to write the truth, so help me God. And I thought I was. I found I couldn't. Nobody can write the absolute truth.

You write to help yourself think better, then think to help yourself write better.

If I can write a book that will help the world make a little more sense to a teen, then that's why I was put on the planet.

These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story.

Writing helps me process things that are happening to me.

The fact is, unlike a lot of writers, I credit the people who help me. A lot of writers out there have a ton of researchers and they don't get credited in the book.

Having instant feedback on twitter to research material I'm considering is an enormous help.

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

I truly believe that the great heroes that create the history of architecture are people who take risks and write to tell about it.

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation.

The first rough draft of history.

The writing of histories - as Goethe once noted - is one way of getting rid of the weight of the past.... The writing of history liberates us from history.

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

When I'm not writing or tweaking my computer, I do embroidery. When I'm not plunging into the past, tweaking, or embroidering, I'm reading books about history, computers, or embroidery.

History is a novel for which the people is the author.

I am not a chess historian - I myself am a piece of chess history, which no one can avoid. I will not write about myself, but I am sure that someone will write.

I've always been drawn to writing historical characters. The best stories are the ones you find in history.

I have written too much history to have faith in it; and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined to agree with him.