Quotes About Writing

Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.

scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly for the sake of their own sound.

Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble.

His eyes re-focused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality.

Looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.

Dickens seems to have succeeded in attacking everybody and antagonizing nobody.

first four letters, and used to write them out

A modern literary intellectual lives and writes in constant dread—not, indeed, of public opinion in the wider sense, but of public opinion within his own group.

Kuigi ma pidin otsima ja ka otsisin õigeid sõnu, paistsin ma tegevat neid kirjanduslikke pingutusi peaaegu vastu tahtmist, mingi välise sunni ajel.

Sobrellevaba con dignidad esa vida absurda de oficinista porque sabía que no sería para siempre. No sabía cómo ni cuándo, eso estaba en manos de Dios, pero tenía el convencimiento de que en algún momento podría librarse de sus ataduras. Después de todo, siempre podía <>. Tal vez algún día, incluso, llegara a ganarse la vida escribiendo y entonces sería totalmente libre del olor nauseabundo del dinero.

The attraction of this way of writing is that it is easy. It is easier – even quicker, once you have the habit – to say In my opinion it is a not unjustifiable assumption that than to say I think.

Un escritor más escrupuloso se preguntará ante cada una de sus frases, al menos, cuatro cosas: ¿qué trato de decir?; ¿con qué palabras puedo expresarlo?; ¿qué imagen o frase hecha lo dirá más claro?, y, por último, ¿tiene esta imagen la frescura suficiente para causar en el lector el efecto deseado? Y

Jättes kõrvale vajaduse elatist teenida, on minu meelest kirjutamisel, vähemalt proosa kirjutamisel, neli suurt motiivi. Erineval määral eksisteerivad nad igas kirjanikus, proportsiooniti aeg-ajalt varieerudes vastavalt õhkkonnale, milles ta elab.

Kuid on ka andekate, isemeelsete inimeste vähemus, kelle määranguks on omaenda elu lõpuni elada, ja kirjanikud kuuluvad sellesse klassi.

J'ai un but, une tâche, disons le mot, une passion. Le métier d'écrire en est une violente et presque indestructible. (I have an object, a task, let me say the word, a passion. The profession of writing is a violent and almost indestructible one.) [Letter to Jules Boucoiran, 4 March 1831]

You must write for all those who are thirsty to read and who can enjoy a good reading.

Dad had once said, Trust your mind, Rob. If it smells like shit but has writing across it that says Happy Birthday and a candle stuck down in it, what is it? Is there icing on it? he'd said. Dad had done that thing of squinting his eyes when an answer was not quite there yet.

These days, it's easy to feel that we've fallen out of connection with one another and with the earth and with reason and with love. I mean: we have. But to read, to write, is to say that we still believe in, at least, the possibility of connection.

A novel is just a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.

By honing the sentences you used to describe the world, you changed the inflection of your mind, which changed your perceptions.

But hereby resolve to write in this book at least twenty minutes a night. (If discouraged, just think of how much will have been recorded for posterity after one mere year!) (September 5) Oops. Missed a day.

Russian short story master Isaac Babel put it, "no iron spike can pierce a human heart as icily as a period in the right place.