Written Quotes - Page 11

• Stories, as much as we like to talk about them, retrospectively, as emanations of theme or worldview or intention, occur primarily as technical objects when they're being written. Or at least they do for me. They're the result of thousands of decisions made at speed during revision.

  George Saunders

  Decision, Stories, Revision

  "On 'Tenth of December': an interview with George Saunders". Interview with Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. January 24, 2013.

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• It is not our job to apply laws that have not yet been written.

  John Paul Stevens

  Jobs, Law

  "Retiring justice an 'unexpected liberal,' negotiator". CNN Wire Staff, www.cnn.com. April 9, 2010.

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• There isn't a lot written about the motorcycle culture.

  Katey Sagal

  Motorcycle, Culture

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• There's so many great songs already written, it's kind of really wonderful you don't have to write your own.

  Katey Sagal

  Song, Writing, Kind

  "'Sons of Anarchy's' Katey Sagal talks about her other life, as a singer". Interview with Susan Carpenter, latimesblogs.latimes.com. September 29, 2010.

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• But once an original book has been written - and no more than one or two appear in a century - men of letters imitate it, in other words, they copy it so that hundreds of thousands of books are published on exactly the same theme, with slightly different titles and modified phraseology. This should be able to be achieved by apes, who are essentially imitators, provided, of course, that they are able to make use of language.

  Pierre Boulle

  Book, Writing, Men

  Pierre Boulle (1963). “Planet of the Apes”

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• Novels are written, not wished into existence. You have to sit your ass in the chair or nothing gets done.

  John Dufresne

  Writing, Done, Ass

  John Dufresne (2010). “Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months”, p.15, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Dialogue that is written in dialect is very tiring to read. If you can do it brilliantly, fine. If other writers read your work and rave about your use of dialect, go for it. But be positive that you do it well, because otherwise it is a lot of work to read short stories or novels that are written in dialect. It makes our necks feel funny.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, Being Positive, Dialect

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• Writers who get written about become self-conscious. They develop a regrettable habit of looking at themselves through the eyes of other people. They are no longer alone, they have an investment in critical praise, and they think they must protect it. This leads to a diffusion of effort. The writer watches himself as he works. He grows more subtle and he pays for it by loss of organic dash.

  Raymond Chandler

  Eye, Writing, Loss

  Raymond Chandler (1987). “Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler”, Delta

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• It can take years. With the first draft, I just write everything. With the second draft, it becomes so depressing for me, because I realize that I was fooled into thinking I'd written the story. I hadn't-I had just typed for a long time. So then I have to carve out a story from the 25 or so pages. It's in there somewhere-but I have to find it. I'll then write a third, fourth, and fifth draft, and so on.

  David Sedaris

  Depressing, Writing, Thinking

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• We wanted to describe society from our left point of view. Per had written political books, but they'd only sold 300 copies. We realised that people read crime and through the stories we could show the reader that under the official image of welfare-state Sweden there was another layer of poverty, criminality and brutality.

  Maj Sjowall

  Book, Views, People

  "The queen of crime". Interview with Louise France, www.theguardian.com. November 21, 2009.

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• I haven't written a young-adult book in years. I'm also doing six 'Goosebumps' books a year now.

  R. L. Stine

  Book, Years, Adults

  "R.L. Stine Talks New Book, 'Red Rain'". Interview with Jackie Nash, www.biography.com. October 10, 2012.

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• I checked to see if there’d been a really good book published in the last few decades. Then I started with what Cleopatra would have read, asking myself, “What can we know about her education?” It turns out to be a very great deal, and bizarrely, no one had written about that before.

  Stacy Schiff

  Book, Asking, Lasts

  Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. November 2, 2010.

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• I've never written a play before, and I'll never write one again. You can quote me.

  Holland Taylor

  Writing, Play

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• It's easy to get published once you have written a really good book and the hard part, 99 percent of what you need to worry about, is really finishing it.

  Laini Taylor

  Book, Finishing It, Worry

  "Free-writing, travels led Laini Taylor to `Daughter of Smoke and Bone'". Interview with Maya Lubarsky, articles.sun-sentinel.com. November 21, 2012.

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• I think the best songs are being written by the very under-stated, under-appreciated indie artists. The thing that separates them from mainstream success is they either consciously or unknowingly refuse to deliver on a big chorus.

  Ryan Tedder

  Song, Thinking, Artist

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• My second album was written while I was on the road promoting the first record. I tried to take my personal experiences and elevate them to universal experiences, so that I wasn't writing songs about living on a tour bus or being on a TV set for the first time.

  Kate Voegele

  Song, Writing, Albums

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• I've written about 15 screenplays and they all sold - they were all sold on pitches.

  Bruce Vilanch

  Screenplays

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• A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.

  Jack Vance

  Stories, Environment, Reader

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• I'm always imagining some sort of story behind the song, even the ones I haven't written. I'm actively engaging in playacting.

  Cassandra Wilson

  Song, Stories, Behinds

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• People recognize certain things, like 'D' means 'this dialogue stinks.' We're dealing with shows that are written here, shot in New York and posted back here. Accurate communication is a necessity.

  Dick Wolf

  New York, Communication, Mean

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• Every kind of book I've written has been written in a different way. There has not been any set time for writing, any set way, I haven't re-invented the process every time but I almost have.

  Irvine Welsh

  Book, Writing, Different

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• Probably 95 percent of the things that are written never get on the screen.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Percent, Screens

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• And I admit it: there's a rather dirty thrill when 700 people laugh at a joke you've written.

  Laura Wade

  Dirty, People, Laughing

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• The musicians recommend that I sing a sing the way it is written the first time and then start to look for other notes that aren't in the melody.

  Margaret Whiting

  Musician, Looks, Way

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• Most of the press is sent to my publicist so I do see most of what is written about me.

  Sela Ward

  Publicists, Presses

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