Writing By Writers Quotes - Page 5

• Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

  George Orwell

  Struggle, Book, Writing

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.316, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Book, Reading, Hero

  1905 Heretics, ch.15.

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• And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.

  Arthur Plotnik

  Fire, Editing And Writing, Shows

  Arthur Plotnik (1984). “The elements of editing: a modern guide for editors and journalists”, Scribner Paper Fiction

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• Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.

  Jane Yolen

  Writing, Athlete, Character

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• Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

  Cyril Connolly

  Inspirational, Respect, Clever

  New Statesman 25 Feb. 1933

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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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  Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Writing, Night, Journey

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• The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Inspirational, Life, Art

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• To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.

  Herman Melville

  Book, Writing, Fleas

  Moby Dick ch. 104 (1851)

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• Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long.

  Leonard Bernstein

  Inspiration, Writing, Long

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• I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Writing, Successful, Interesting

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• Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Writing, Story Writers, Details

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• I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.

  Stephen King

  Writing, Character, Trying

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• Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Past, Ideas

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• Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks.

  Richard Curtis

  Book, Writing, Faster

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• Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.

  Richard Miller

  Wrestling, Writing, Way

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• Write while the heat is in you.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Writing, Heat, Great Writing

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.13, Heron Dance Press

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• Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Nature, Rain, Writing

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• Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan and a course laid out.

  John Gardner

  Writing, Sea, Helping

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• Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

  T. S. Eliot

  Witty, Humorous, Writing

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• Writing is the hardest work in the world not involving heavy lifting.

  Pete Hamill

  Writing, World, Heavy

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• Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It's like passing around samples of sputum.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Writing, Ambitious, Rough Drafts

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• Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.

  Sholem Asch

  Writing, Ifs, Creative Writing

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• Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper.

  John Steinbeck

  Writing, Paper, Whole

  John Steinbeck (1989). “Steinbeck: A Life in Letters”, p.611, Penguin

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• Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.

  Truman Capote

  Children, Book, Writing

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