The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.

—Russell Baker

About Russell Baker

Portrait of Russell Baker

Russell Wayne Baker (August 14, 1925 – January 21, 2019) was an American journalist, narrator, writer of Pulitzer Prize-winning satirical commentary and self-critical prose, and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography Growing Up (1982). He was a columnist for The New York Times for 36 years, and hosted eleven seasons...

More quotations from Russell Baker

People who say you're just as old as you feel are all wrong, fortunately.

—Russell Baker

perspective age

Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.

—Russell Baker

sadness misery company

Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down.

—Russell Baker

cars efficiency

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.

—Russell Baker

enjoyment suffering summer

I was to learn later that in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

—Russell Baker

More quotations tagged with “writing”

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.

—Jules Renard

talent writing literature

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.

—Peter De Vries

Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.

—Russel Lynes

writing journalism novels

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

—Cyril Connolly

You are going to have to give and give and give, or there’s no reason for you to be writing. You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and you are going to have to go on giving, and the giving is going to have to be its own reward. There is no cosmic importance to your getting something published, but there is in learning to be a giver.

importance writing art giving

History

1 Nov 2013 Added