Quotes About Writing

People who experience flow describe it as "a state of effortless concentration so deep that they lose their sense of time, of themselves, of their problems," and their descriptions of the joy of that state are so compelling that Csikszentmihalyi has called it an "optimal experience." Many activities can induce a sense of flow, from painting to racing motorcycles—and for some fortunate authors I know, even writing a book is often an optimal experience.

but the chapters we wrote first were probably easier than others

Aber seien wir doch ehrlich, es ist ein seltsamer Beruf. Ein wenig lächerlich für einen erwachsenen Menschen. Sie sitzen daheim und denken sich Geschichten aus, die nie passiert sind.

Writing a novel, said Humboldt, seemed to him the perfect way to capture the most fleeting essence of the present for the future.

Punctuation, is? fun!

Actors are good liars, writers are good liars with good memories.

Le temps de lire est toujours du temps volé. (Tout comme le temps d'écrire, d'ailleurs, ou le temps d'aimer)

We human beings build houses because we're alive, but we write books because we're mortal. We live in groups because we're sociable, but we read because we know we're alone. Reading offers a kind of companionship that takes no one's place, but that no one can replace either.

Parce que le mot à leurs yeux ne devient vraiment gros que lorsqu'on l'écrit, on s'en "branle" à l'oral, on s'en "bat les couilles à longueur de journée, on "nique ta mère" à tire larigot. Mais trouver le mot "couille" ou le verbe "branler" et "niquer" noir sur blanc, dans un livre, quand leur place est sur les murs des toilettes, alors ça...

Si guardano. Alcuni, non si sa mai, si piazzano davanti un foglio e mettono le bic in posizione di attacco. No, no, e inutile prendere appunti. Cercate solo di ascoltare. - Si pone allora il problema dell'atteggiamento. Che cosa ne è di un corpo in un'aula scolastica, se non ha più l'alibi della penna a sfera e del foglio bianco?

L'homme construit des maisons parce qu'il est vivant, mais il écrit des livres parce qu'il se sait mortel. Il habite en bande parce qu'il est grégaire, mais il lit parce qu'il se sait seul. Cette lecture lui est une compagnie qui ne prend la place d'aucune autre, mais qu'aucune autre compagnie ne saurait remplacer.

Time to read is always time stolen. (Like time to write, for that matter, or time to love). Stolen from what? From the tyranny of living.

I went to college, but I learned to write by reading and writing.

As an actor, there is room for a certain amount of creativity, but you're always ultimately going to be saying somebody else's words. I don't think I'd have the stamina, skill or ability to write a novel, but I'd love to write short stories and poetry, because those are my two passions.

There was a time when novelists wrote narrative and journalists were content to report facts.

G. K. Chesterton, an English journalist who wrote extensively about his Christian beliefs in the early part of the twentieth

James Agee and Flannery O'Connor have impacted on me hardest

Woodrell is the least-known major writer in the country right now." —Dennis Lehane, USA Today

Indeed, the art of democratic writing demands of its practitioners the aspiration to write to any and all, for any and all. It is a philanthropic art: it requires affection for humanity.

I wrote because I needed to and wanted to. It never occurred to me that I'd become famous.

In my late teenage years, I developed a real passion for it, and wrote a lot of poetry.

O ?emu još govore njeni paragrafi, prazne rubrike koje je ispisivala nevidljivim mastilom mašta de?aka?

J'écris à voix haute dans mon coeur.

Ce qui est sûr c'est que je n'aurais pas écrit ainsi si j'étais resté là-bas. Peut-être que je n'aurais pas écrit du tout. Écrit-on hors de son pays pour se consoler? Je doute de toute vocation d'écrivain en exil.