Quotes About Writing

Write like it matters, and it will.

Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hoped.

Jaunti, who was half Qwilleran's age, now had the gall to write a column of wit and wisdom from the Delphic heights of his adolescent ignorance.

You never forgot those old movies, Qwill. You still want reporters to type with their hats on and poke the keys with two fingers.

The Siamese had finished their three-hour morning nap and had not yet settled down for their four-hour afternoon siesta. It was their Mischief Hour. Yum Yum was batting a pencil she had stolen from the writing table, and Koko was parading around with a sweat sock that Qwilleran used for biking.

If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.

Nothing you write, if you hope to be good, will ever come out as you first hoped.

Hammett used to be irritated by that and would answer that nobody ever deliberately wrote a potboiler, you just did the best you could and woke up to find it good or no good.

St. Bernard said, 'Every word one writes smites the Devil.

writing is magic because it harnesses the energy generated by the chaos within.

Picture of the Author LINDA LAEL MILLER has written more than twenty novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Princess Annie, The Legacy, Yankee Wife, and Daniel's Bride . With almost six million copies of her books in print, she is considered to be among the finest romance authors writing today. Ms. Miller resides in the Seattle area, where she is at work on her third time-travel romance, My Outlaw .

For writers, a beat works in a script much as a beat works in a piece of music. In a song, single beats are grouped to make up a measure. By adding more beats (thus more measures) you create a phrase, and eventually an entire melody. In the same way, single dramatic beats or moments, placed together, create a scene. And the beats in a scene, together, create the beats of an act, and the beats of an act, together, create an entire film.

It may be that I have sought to cultivate that trait in myself to such a high degree because I think of myself primarily as a writer. The chief satisfaction in the whole business of writing, it seems to me, comes down to saying what is, or what you think is.

What a useless life I had led. Often enough in hours of normal health I had debated the value of writing books. What did one accomplish by writing, what influence did one exert, what improvements did one effect?

The Nihilist intelligentzia had sustained the thesis that writing was merely a pastime like any other, an empty amusement of the writer like sports or liquor or whoring or what you will. I had never accepted that view.

A lot of my writing is basically about observation, and things that I've seen, either through personal experiences or the experiences of people around me, or society at large.

Writing is a noble privilege compared with the lot of most people, who live like parts of a machine, who live only to keep the gears of society pointlessly turning.

I hate the idea that I have to represent any particular section of society; I just write good telly, that's all.

There is an atmosphere of spiritual effort here. No other city is quite like it. I wake early, often at 5 o'clock, and start writing at once.

We only store in memory images of value. To write about one's life is to live it twice, and the second time is both spiritual and historical.

The first forms of writing emerged not for art, literature, or love, not for spiritual or liturgical purposes, but for business--all literature could be said to originate from sales receipts (sorry).

Most writers need a wound, either physical or spiritual.

Writing comedy is the greatest spiritual gift you can give to anybody anytime.

Writing for me is a form of spiritual discipline and creative vision, a means of being in the world and giving one's love to it without compromise or dilution.