Writing Quotes - Page 18

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  The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

  William H. Gass

  Book, Kids, Alchemist

  William H. Gass (2010). “A Temple of Texts”, p.37, Knopf Group E-Books

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• Wearing down seven number two pencils is a good day's work.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Good Day, Two, Numbers

  Ernest Hemingway (2015). “Ernest Hemingway: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations”, p.11, Melville House

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• Dialogue is a necessary evil.

  Fred Zinnemann

  Evil, Necessary Evil, Dialogue

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• The only way to do it is to do it: by writing, writing, writing.

  Barbara Mertz

  Way

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• I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Work, Book

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations”, p.3, Courier Corporation

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• A clear sentence is no accident.

  William Zinsser

  Clear, Sentences, Accidents

  William Zinsser (2012). “On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction”, p.9, Harper Collins

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• When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Humor, Men, Deep Thought

  "Kurt Vonnegut: In His Own Words". The Times (London), April 12, 2007.

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• If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.

  Peter Handke

  Design, Childhood, Storyteller

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• Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man wanted to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Men, Religion, Would Be

  Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1978.

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• A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

  Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  Inspiring, Success, Perfection

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• Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Mistake, Creativity

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 4 (1891). A similar quotation occurs inWilde's play LadyWindermere's Fan, act 3 (1892).

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• Read! Read! Read! And then read some more. When you find something that thrills you, take it apart paragraph by paragraph, line by line, word by word, to see what made it so wonderful. Then use those tricks next time you write.

  W. P. Kinsella

  Use, Lines, Next

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• The story is always better than your ability to write it. My belief about this is that if you ever get to the point that you think you've done a story justice, you're in the wrong business.

  Robin McKinley

  Thinking, Justice, Stories

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• There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

  Anthony Trollope

  Education, Reading, Way

  Anthony Trollope (2016). “Barchester Towers”, p.238, Anthony Trollope

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• There are so many different kinds of writing and so many ways to work that the only rule is this: do what works. Almost everything has been tried and found to succeed for somebody. The methods, even the ideas of successful writers contradict each other in a most heartening way, and the only element I find common to all successful writers is persistence-an overwhelming determination to succeed.

  Sophy Burnham

  Determination, Successful, Persistence

  Sophy Burnham (2011). “For Writers Only: Inspiring Thoughts on the Exquisite Pain and Heady Joy of the Writing Life from Its Great Practitioners”, p.51, Penguin

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• I've heard writers talk about "discovering a voice," but for me that wasn't a problem. There were so many voices that I didn't know where to start.

  Sam Shepard

  Voice, Problem, Heard

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• Follow the path of your aroused thought, and you will soon meet this infernal inscription: There is nothing so beautiful as that which does not exist.

  Paul Valery

  Beautiful, Doe, Path

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• I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Clever, Hipster

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.153, Wordsworth Editions

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• There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.

  John Fowles

  Novelists, Needs, Alternatives

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• The only two kinds of books could earn an American writer a living are cookbooks and detective novels.

  Rex Stout

  Book, Two, Detectives

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• The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.

  Alfred Kazin

  Order, Ideas, Curious

  1963 In Think, Feb.

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• The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He's entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused; maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been wasted, you're in violation.

  Larry Niven

  Book, Thinking, Rights

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• When writing a novel, that's pretty much entirely what life turns into: 'House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.

  Neil Gaiman

  Good Day, Cat, Car

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• Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.

  James A. Baldwin

  Editors, Literature, World

  "Notes of a Native Son". Book by James A. Baldwin, archive.nytimes.com. 1955.

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• The writer's greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.

  James A. Baldwin

  Greed, Needs, Literature

  1961 Nobody Knows My Name,'Alas, Poor Richard'.

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