Quotes About Craft

I want to walk the bases - I want to do all the actor-y stuff.

I came from theater, which is its own beast.

What I ended up doing was becoming an actor who didn't mind doing other people's words.

Un buon lettore è raro quanto un bravo scrittore.

in the business of writing what one accumulates is not expertise but uncertainties. Which is but another name for craft.

If the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference of the total.

Writing is like shadow boxing. Editing is when the shadows fight back.

Writers are married to their keyboards, as to their passports.

You know, writing is really difficult, and it takes a real patience and a skill. I don't know if I have that. I admire it in others, so much, and I envy it.

I think it's nice if someone respects whatever their endeavor is, whether it's dance or art or stand-up comedy, to not assume that they're gonna be an overnight sensation, that it's this great craft that takes a lot of hard work to get good at.

When we talk about chefs, we often talk about their love of food or their passion for it, but cooking is also about making a living; it's a job.

I'm constantly looking for ways to learn and elevate your craft, patience for yourself, and patience for this business. It's not a fair business. You may be great, but it may take years for someone to notice what you're capable of because of politics.

I have learnt to become patient as an actor.

Writing a screenplay, for me, is like juggling. It's like, how many balls can you get in the air at once? All those ideas have to float out there to a certain point, and then they'll crystallize into a pattern.

When I write songs, I like to write lyrics first, and I think that's different from a lot of singer-songwriters. But I heard Sammy Cahn was asked what comes first, the lyrics or the music, and he said, 'The paycheck.'

When you're a mid-list writer, it pays to write fast.

It is a peculiar art form, but I think it's a necessary art form - and I do believe it's a noble art form.

A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen.

I always have a good pen with me.

There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.

I was always a writer, by which I mean I was always scribbling away, doing something with pen and paper.

I write with pen and paper, my first draft, on legal pads.

A lot of songs you write are just for exercise - just pencil sharpeners.

There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, 'Oh, you're playing yourself.' I guess it's kind of a compliment. Or people say, 'Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.' The work is to make it look effortless. That's the hard part.