Quotes About Writing

Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the system.

Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the system.

When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God's business.

I have settled, in short, from reading my own writings, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil.

Many people, other than the authors, contribute to the making of a book, from the first person who had the bright idea of alphabetic writing through the inventor of movable type to the lumberjacks who felled the trees that were pulped for its printing. It is not customary to acknowledge the trees themselves, though their commitment is total.

Parar de leer novelas exige mucha fuerza. Hay que tener ganas de vivir, de correr, de crecer. (...) Me interesé antes por los libros que por la vida. Desde entonces, no he cesado de utilizar la lectura como un medio para hacer desaparecer el tiempo, y la escritura como un medio para retenerlo.

Seit damals benutze ich das Lesen als Mittel, die Zeit zum Verschwinden zu bringen, und das Schreiben als Mittel, sie festzuhalten.

Nhà v?n không ph?i là m?t ngh? mà là m?t cu?c ki?m tìm. C?n ph?i có kh? n?ng nhìn nh?ng th? bình th??ng v?i v? s?ng s?t, và nhìn nh?ng th? ?iên r? mà v?n gi? ???c bình t?nh.

Tuturor criticilor pe care i-am dezam?git, a? vrea s? le spun, o dat? pentru totdeauna, c? sunt de acord cu ei. ?i mie mi-ar pl?cea s? scriu c?r?i mai bune.

Think while walking, walk while thinking, and let writing be but the light pause, as the body on a walk rests in contemplation of wide open spaces.

Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publications.

it is the man of the night who invents, the man of the morning is nothing but a scribe.

The idea precedes everything, the rest is only attentive patience, weaving, a game of shuttles; for it is the man of the night who invents, the man of the morning is nothing but a scribe

What Malherbe writes will endure forever.

Ce n'est pas la peine d'avoir du talent à la cinquième ligne si le lecteur ne dépasse pas la troisième.

Don't you love quotations? I am immensely fond of them; a certain proof of erudition.... [I]f you should happen to write an insipid poem... send it to me, and my fiat shall crown you with immortality.

I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must not write outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.

All afternoon in the deck chair, I try to describe to my notebook the colors of the water and sky. How to translate sunlight into words?

La pluma en la derecha. El corazón a la izquierda. Y tú por todas partes.

La plume à droite. Le cœur à gauche. Et toi partout.

Cuando te llegue a casa, imagina que no eres tú quién la ha escrito, sino un amigo lejano que necesita tus consejos. Tú eres el maestro, así que escribirás una nueva carta para dar respuesta a todo lo que plantea la que has recibido.

The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper.

One of these days I'm-a make me a book out of you.

the trouble with poetry is that it encourages the writing of more poetry...