Quotes About Inspiration

What makes it is when you go over the whole piece each day from the start to where you go on from rewriting it really and then going on. Even then the actual writing is probably only about an hour and a half. Of course lots of times you can't write but nearly always you do. Each day you throw away what turned out to be shit in the stuff you did the day before.

There are only two things worth aiming for, good music and a clean conscience.

But it was hard for Poetry to stay angry very long. Nearly everything anybody said or did reminded him of a poem.

was always quoting what some famous somebody

The best player I've ever played with was Paul Gascoigne. He had everything. He was amazing.

But you need to cultivate patience, youngling. And you need to listen to my words of wisdom, because as far as you are concerned, I am Obi-Wan fucking Kenobi. Okay?

Enthusiasm is the yeast that raises the dough.

Revising while you generate text is like drinking decaffeinated coffee in the early morning: noble idea, wrong time.

Writing is more fun when you have a partner, so find friends who share your research interests. Two authors can write faster, can complement expertise, can help with hard decisions, and understand context of decisions made.

Put your "inner writer" back on its leash and give it a chew toy.

Serious writers write, inspired or not. Over time they discover that routine is a better friend to them than inspiration

Writing Well by William Zinsser

Even though I've written more than a hundred short stories I always think that I will never come up with another decent one. It's agony.

I believe that, like most writers, my personality comes through in the fiction. So in that respect my writing can't be like any other author's really.

I can look back at stuff I wrote in my early days and squirm at some of the mistakes I made. But we're all learning every day we never stop. I just hope people keep on liking what I do. That gives me such a kick.

Well, I think that - I think leadership's always been about two main things: imagination and courage.

My fiction-writing career owes it start to the bad navigation of an 18th century pirate. For it was

When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions.

Color possesses me—I don't have to pursue it…. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter.

Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter.

Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

Color has got me. I no longer need to chase after it. It has got me for ever. I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour.

I cannot be grasped in the here and now. For my dwelling place is as much among the dead as the yet unborn. Slightly closer to the heart of creation than usual. But not nearly close enough.