Quotes About Craft

I learn the lines that JK Rowling or whoever writes them, and say them.

Alice Munro is a particular kind of short story writer in that she writes long, character-driven short stories.

No one writes a great book every time out, or even a good book.

A writer is defined by the language in which he writes, and I would stick to that definition.

You know, if an actor or, say, a basketball player writes a rhyme, it doesn't mean he's a rapper. You got to put in time. I don't say I'm an actor.

I am an actor who also writes.

The desire to write grows with writing.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

Writing is like any other sort of sport. In order for you to get better at it, you have to exercise the muscle.

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

Stand-up has the best writers, because it's the hardest writing by a million miles.

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

You spend most of your life working and trying to hone your craft, working on your chops, working on your writing, and you don't really think about accolades. Then you get a bit older and they start coming your way. It's a nice pat on the back.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.

There are as many routes to writing success as there are writers who got there. My advice, however, applies across the board: read widely, learn the craft by whatever means you can - workshops and writing programs are ideal, but even self-study can work - apply what you learn, and persevere.

Writing is manual labor of the mind - like laying pipe.

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.

The translator, we should know, is a writer too. As a matter of fact, he could be called the ideal writer because all he has to do is write; plot, theme, characters, and all other essentials have already been provided, so he can just sit down and write his ass off. (p. 8)

Style is as much under the words as in the words. It is as much the soul as it is the flesh of a work.

The] artisans [...] men whose chief interest is their craft and not the market place.

Same thing with film, by the time you've finished shooting and you've really been into everything, you've touched up everything in the editing room. You've gone in there and taken little bits from everything.