Writing Quotes - Page 25

• There are men that will make you books, and turn them loose into the world, with as much dispatch as they would do a dish of fritters.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Book, Men, World

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1993). “Don Quixote”, p.383, Wordsworth Editions

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• It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers; nor can the nicest judgment always distinguish accidental similitude from artful imitation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Unexpected, Common, Coincidence

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.209

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• One hates an author that's all author.

  Lord Byron

  Hate

  Lord Byron (2013). “Byron: Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.98, Routledge

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• Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write.

  J. B. Priestley

  Would Be, Ifs, Writers And Writing

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• I seat myself at the typewriter and hope, and lurk.

  Mignon G. Eberhart

  Typewriters, Seats

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• You have typewriters, presses. And a huge audience. How about raising hell?

  Jenkin Lloyd Jones

  Typewriters, Hell, Audience

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• The beginning of a plot is the prompting of desire.

  Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

  Desire, Plot

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• I look at my work and make up my mind about it. After that, neither flattery nor criticism matters to me.

  Georgia O'Keeffe

  Mind, Criticism, Looks

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• So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.

  Harold Acton

  Regret, Real, Often Is

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• I hate commas in the wrong places.

  Walt Whitman

  Hate, I Hate

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• To turn experience into speech - that is, to classify, to categorize, to conceptualize, to grammarize, to syntactify it - is always a betrayal of experience, a falsification of it; but only so betrayed can it be dealt with at all, and only in so dealing with it did I ever feel a man, alive and kicking.

  John Barth

  Betrayal, Men, Kicking

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• As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail.

  Aristotle

  Firsts, Details, Stories

  Aristotle (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)”, p.3458, Delphi Classics

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• All good writing leaves something unexpressed.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Good Writing

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• New dramatic writing has banished conversational dialogue from the stage as a relic of dramaturgy based on conflict and exchange: any story, intrigue or plot that is too neatly tied up is suspect.

  Patrice Pavis

  Plot, Stories, Conflict

  Patrice Pavis (2003). “Theatre at the Crossroads of Culture”, p.57, Routledge

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• If you do all that work of figuring out exactly how writing is done, then it's available to you at anytime, and you can build on it. It's like the difference between shooting one hoop and having it go in by accident and saying later, 'I shot a basket,' - and practicing so much you can do it whenever you want.

  Mark Salzman

  Differences, Done, Shooting

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• I don't give a damn what other people think. It's entirely their own business. I'm not writing for other people.

  Harold Pinter

  Thinking, People, Giving

  Harold Pinter, Mel Gussow (1996). “Conversations with Pinter”, p.20, Grove Press

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• Writing is a solitary occupation.

  Bernard Cornwell

  Occupation, Solitary

  "An Interview with Cape Cod Author Bernard Cornwell". Interview with Christopher Seufert, ezinearticles.com. February 27, 2006.

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• First of all, writing at best - certainly fiction writing - more and more I think is magic.

  Kathy Acker

  Thinking, Magic, Firsts

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• When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader.

  Anne Lamott

  Real, Caring, Light

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.225, Anchor

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• He who writes much will not easily escape a manner, such a recurrence of particular modes as may be easily noted.

  Samuel Johnson

  May, Recurrence, Particular

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper”, p.459

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• Critics ought never to be consulted, but while errors may yet be rectified or insipidity suppressed. But when the book has once been dismissed into the world, and can be no more retouched, I know not whether a very different conduct should not be prescribed, and whether firmness and spirit may not sometimes be of use to overpower arrogance and repel brutality.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Errors, Arrogance

  Samuel Johnson (2003). “Selected Essays”, p.433, Penguin UK

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• The animadversions of critics are commonly such as may easily provoke the sedatest writer to some quickness of resentment and asperity of reply.

  Samuel Johnson

  May, Resentment, Critics

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.394

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• There are certain topicks which are never exhausted. Of some images and sentiments the mind of man may be said to be enamoured; it meets them, however often they occur, with the same ardour which a lover feels at the sight of his mistress, and parts from them with the same regret when they can no longer be enjoyed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Regret, Men, Sight

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.100

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• When a poet mentions the spring, we know that the zephyrs are about to whisper, that the groves are to recover their verdure, the linnets to warble forth their notes of love, and the flocks and herds to frisk over vales painted with flowers: yet, who is there so insensible of the beauties of nature, so little delighted with the renovation of the world, as not to feel his heart bound at the mention of the spring?

  Samuel Johnson

  Spring, Flower, Heart

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: with Murphy's essay”, p.97

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• General irregularities are known in time to remedy themselves. By the constitution of ancient Egypt, the priesthood was continually increasing, till at length there was no people beside themselves; the establishment was then dissolved, and the number of priests was reduced and limited. Thus among us, writers will, perhaps, be multiplied, till no readers will be found, and then the ambition of writing must necessarily cease.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ambition, Egypt, Numbers

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.344

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