Creative Writing Quotes - Page 2

• Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything really good.

  William Faulkner

  Inspiring, Writing, May

  "A Faulkner perspective: a companion-guide to the limited first edition of the Selected letters of William Faulkner".

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• A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.

  Richard Bach

  Perseverance, Writing, Editing

  Richard Bach (2012). “A Gift of Wings”, p.9, Dell

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• The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Funny, Humorous

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.13, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

  Tom Clancy

  Life, Witty, Truth

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Asking a writer what he thinks about criticism is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.

  John Osborne

  Dog, Writing, Thinking

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• By writing much, one learns to write well.

  Robert Southey

  Writing, Wells, Creativity And Writing

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• You have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.

  Doris Lessing

  Giving Up, Creative Writers, Deals

  "Mrs. Lessing Addresses Some of Life's Puzzles". Interview with Herbert Mitgang, archive.nytimes.com. April 22, 1984.

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• When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.

  Enrique Jardiel Poncela

  Writing, Effort, Gone

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• Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.

  Ray Bradbury

  Writing, Quality, Produce

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• If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

  Stephen King

  Writing, Caring, Tools

  Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”, p.174, Simon and Schuster

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• How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Beautiful, Book

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.8, Penguin

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• There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Real Talk, Story Writers

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• A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.

  Kenneth Tynan

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  N.Y. Times, 1 Dec. 1963

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• Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.

  Stephen King

  Get Well, Writing, Making Friends

  FaceBook post by Stephen King from Nov 19, 2013

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• The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Writing

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt McLaughlin (2010). “The Laws of Nature: Excerpts from the Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.13, North Atlantic Books

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• Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Funny, Writing

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• I really think that if there's any one enemy to human creativity, especially creative writing, its self-consciousness. And if you have one eye on the mirror to see how you're doing, you're not doing it as well as you can. Don't think about publishing, don't think about editors, don't think about marketplace.

  Andre Dubus

  Writing, Creativity, Eye

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• The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

  Philip Roth

  Work, Writing, Sisterhood

  1979 In the NewYorkTimes Book Review,15 Jul.

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  Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Education, Reading, Writing

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred R. Ferguson (1965). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume V: 1835-1838”, p.233, Harvard University Press

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• Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.

  Rod Serling

  Writing, Creative, Fiction

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• I do not like to write - I like to have written.

  Gloria Steinem

  Writing, Written

  Gloria Steinem (2012). “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions”, p.42, Open Road Media

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• One must be an inventor to read well.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Reading, Creative Writers

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.66, Penguin

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• When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Writing, Character, Want Something

  Kurt Vonnegut (1988). “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut”, p.189, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

  Andre Gide

  Beautiful, Writing, Madness

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