I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters. —Solomon Short More about this quote Tags: power writing fools Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything. —Walter Bagehot More about this quote Tags: writing knowledge books Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable. —Raymond Chandler More about this quote Tags: writing mystery novels publishing Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
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 More about this quote Tags: writing control psychology illusion Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met. —Abraham Lincoln More about this quote Tags: words writing ideas language Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long. —Leonard Bernstein More about this quote Tags: inspiration writing waiting working Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers. —Jimmy Breslin More about this quote Tags: writing anger rage newspapers Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
For me, it’s about morning, quiet, solitude and no Internet to plug me into the cacophony until I have written something. Also about not having a conversation with anyone. Which might be why I am single. I have often woken up to a person next to me who says in a sleepy affectionate way ‘Hey—what are you up today?’ and I answer but all I am thinking is ‘You killed it! It’s over! Now I can’t write today.’ —Guinevere Turner More about this quote Tags: solitude writing productivity routine Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. —Edward Gibbon More about this quote Tags: innocence learning writing knowledge Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews. —William Faulkner More about this quote Tags: time writing art criticism Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true. —Robert Wilensky More about this quote Tags: writing art internet Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin. —Stanislaw J. Lec More about this quote Tags: writing procrastination stopping Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs. —Christopher Hampton More about this quote Tags: writing criticism analogy Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A signature always reveals a man's character - and sometimes even his name. —Evan Esar More about this quote Tags: writing personality signature Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The author of genius does keep till his last breath the spontaneity, the ready sensitiveness, of a child, the “innocence of eye” that means so much to the painter, the ability to respond freshly and quickly to new scenes, and to old scenes as though they were new… This freshness of response is vital to the author’s talent… But there is another element to his character, fully as important to his success. It is adult, discriminating, temperate, and just. It is the side of the artisan, the workman, and the critic rather than the artist. It must work continually with and through the emotional and childlike side, or we have no work of art. If either element of the artist’s character gets too far out of hand the result will be bad work, or no work at all. The writer’s first task is to get these two elements of his nature into balance, to combine their aspects into one integrated character. —Dorothea Brande in Becoming A Writer More about this quote Tags: career writing art work Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email