Typewriters Quotes

• There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Writing, Bad Ass, Scary

  "Exclusive: Never-Before-Seen Photos from Hemingway's Childhood" by James Joiner, www.esquire.com. October 24, 2013.

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• A typewriter is a means of transcribing thought, not expressing it.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Mean, Transcribing

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• I had an old typewriter and a big idea.

  J. K. Rowling

  Greatest Fear, Ideas, Foundation

  J.K. Rowling (2015). “Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination”, p.38, Hachette UK

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• There's a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they'd eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn't true.

  Ian Hart

  Monkeys, Thanks, Internet

  2001 In the Sunday Herald, 30 Dec.

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• At the typewriter you find out who you are.

  Tom Robbins

  Who You Are

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• My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.

  Graham Greene

  Hands, Two, Brain

  International Herald Tribune, October 07, 1977.

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• I like the sound a typewriter makes.

  Paul Auster

  Sound

  "The mighty Quinn" by James Campbell, www.theguardian.com. November 12, 2005.

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• I just sit at a typewriter and curse a bit.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Writing, Curse, Bits

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• I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

  J. K. Rowling

  Inspirational, Motivational, Daughter

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• I love working on a typewriter - the rhythm, the sound; it's like playing the piano, which I do, too.

  David Mamet

  Piano, Sound, Rhythm

  "Mamet Talk" by Lillian Ross, www.newyorker.com. May 19, 2008.

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• I had one typewriter for 50 years, but I have bought seven computers in six years. I suppose that's why Bill Gates is rich, and Underwood is out of business.

  Andy Rooney

  Years, Bills, Six

  "Journalist Andy Rooney Dies at 92" by Joel Siegel, abcnews.go.com. November 05, 2011.

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• The secret of successful writing lies in striking the right keys on the typewriter.

  Evan Esar

  Lying, Writing, Successful

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• Do some living and get yourself a typewriter.

  Charles Bukowski

  Charles Bukowski (2015). “On Writing”, p.1, Canongate Books

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• I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.

  David Gerrold

  Funny, Sarcastic, Witty

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• Much as I like owning a Rolls-Royce, I could do without it. What I could not do without is a typewriter, a supply of yellow second sheets and the time to put them to good use.

  John O'Hara

  Yellow, Use, Rolls Royce

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• Bless all useful objects,
  the spoons made of bone,
  the mattress I cook my dreams upon,
  the typewriter that is my church
  with an altar of keys always waiting.

  Anne Sexton

  Dream, Keys, Waiting

  Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

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• We are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter

  Allen Ginsberg

  Howl, Great Writers

  Allen Ginsberg (2001). “Howl and Other Poems: Pocket Poets Number 4”, p.24, City Lights Publishers

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• People die from typewriters falling on their heads.

  Jonathan Davis

  Falling In Love, People, Dies

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• People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it.

  Harlan Ellison

  Morning, Writing, Thinking

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• The biggest obstacle to professional writing is the necessity for changing a typewriter ribbon.

  Robert Benchley

  Writing, Ribbons, Comedy

  Chips off the old Benchley (1949) "Learn to Write"

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• When a reporter sits down at the typewriter, he’s nobody’s friend.

  Theodore White

  Reporters

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• I am trying to get the hang of this new fangled writing machine, but I am not making a shining success of it. However, this is the first attempt I have ever made & yet I perceive I shall soon & easily acquire a fine facility in its use. ... The machine has several virtues. I believe it will print faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair & work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don't muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper.

  Mark Twain

  Believe, Writing, Shining

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• Sometimes I think my writing sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running.

  Gene Fowler

  Running, Writing, Thinking

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• A catless writer is almost inconceivable. It's a perverse taste, really, since it would be easier to write with a herd of buffalo in the room than even one cat; they make nests in the notes and bite the end of the pen and walk on the typewriter keys.

  Barbara Holland

  Writing, Cat, Animal

  Barbara Holland (1994). “Secrets of the Cat: Its Lore, Legend, and Lives”, Ivy Books

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• The worst kind of censorship is the kind that takes place in your own mind before you sit down to a typewriter.

  Paddy Chayefsky

  Mind, Censorship, Kind

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