Writing Quotes - Page 17

• When my horse is running good, I don't stop to give him sugar.

  William Faulkner

  Running, Horse, Giving

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• I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.

  Doris Lessing

  Giving Up, Hard Work, Two

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

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• Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

  A. A. Milne

  Success, Fame, States

  A. A. Milne “Not That It Matters”, Lulu.com

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• You can make anything by writing.

  C. S. Lewis

  Kids, Storytelling

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• Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.

  David Sedaris

  Giving, People, Illusion Of Control

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• Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered potholder.

  Raymond Chandler

  Passion, Technique, Enough

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

  William Faulkner

  Inspiring, May, Way

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

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• Writing is turning one's worst moments into money.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Worst Moments, Writing Fiction, Moments

  Quoted in Playboy, May 1979

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• Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.

  John Ruskin

  Reader, Skip, Productivity

  "A Joy for Ever". Book by John Ruskin, note 6, 1857.

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• The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis.

  William Styron

  Age, Neurosis, Young Writers

  William Styron, James L. W. West (1985). “Conversations with William Styron”, p.19, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Editing, Mind, Sides

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• If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.

  Woody Allen

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  "Shakespeare, Woody Allen And A Certain Qantas A380" by Christine Negroni, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 23, 2012.

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• With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.

  James Thurber

  Birthday, Sarcastic, Faces

  1955 In the New York Post, 30 Jun.

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• The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Creativity

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• I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.

  Steven Wright

  Funny, Witty, Humorous

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• The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.

  William Butler Yeats

  Christian, Passion, Heart

  William Butler Yeats (1955). “Letters”

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• You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Ends, Dies

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• I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

  Mark Twain

  Time, Long, Letters

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• I could not think without writing.

  Jean Piaget

  Thinking

  Richard Isadore Evans, Jean Piaget (1973). “Dialogue with Jean Piaget”, Praeger Publishers

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• Writing and reading are the only ways to find your voice. It won't magically burst forth in your poems the next time you sit down to write, or the next; but little by little, as you become aware of more choices and begin to make them -- consciously and unconsciously -- your style will develop.

  Dorianne Laux

  Reading, Voice, Choices

  Kim Addonizio, Dorianne Laux (2010). “The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry”, p.116, W. W. Norton & Company

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• I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Money, Epic, Taste

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967”, p.106, Ballantine Books

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• Write,' she said, 'as if you'll never be read. That way you'll be sure to tell the truth.

  Lori Lansens

  Way, Telling The Truth, Said

  Lori Lansens (2009). “The Girls”, p.14, Vintage Canada

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• Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Keys, Story Writers, Needs

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• Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything.

  Ivana Trump

  Funny, Stupid, Inspiration

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• Rewrite formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%.

  Stephen King

  Formulas

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