"The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic."

Writing, Complexity, Effort, Play

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"The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic."

Exlpore more Writing quotes

"You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least beans you possibly can. So because I had already written historical fiction before I was really good at the spilling beans section, but the new skill I had to learn when I was writing Brighton Belle was difficult. I had to avoid the equivalent of shouting, "this character's a murderer! Look who did it!."

Sara Sheridan, Scottish Author

Writing, Mystery, Storytelling, Secrets, Skill

"Don't say it was delightful; make us say delightful when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers Please will you do the job for me."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Writing, Description, Delight, Imagination

"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, American Author

Writing, Tragedy

"We write, edit, and rewrite the story of our own life employing descriptive words, metaphors, and symbols. Our lives are full of symbols including those supplied by nature and religion, which touch upon the mystical and spiritual aspects of life. Symbols inspire enduring hope by formulating idealist expectations."

Kilroy J. Oldster, American Author

Writing, Life, Religion, Nature

"I'm a fairly undisciplined writer."

Neil Gaiman, British Author

Writing, Writer

"Writers aren't exactly people, they're a bunch of people trying to be one person."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, American Author

Writing, Identity, Creativity, People

"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

John F. Kennedy, American President

Writing, Americans, Country

"Pour your heart onto the page."

A. D. Posey, American Poet

Writing, Emotion, Expression, Creativity

"One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane."

Laurell K. Hamilton, American Writer

Writing, Magic, Rules

"Twofold misjudgement. - The misfortune suffered by clear-minded and easily understood writers is that they are taken for shallow and thus little effort is expended on reading them: and the good fortune that attends the obscure is that the reader toils at them and ascribes to them the pleasure he has in fact gained from his own zeal."

Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher

Writing, Error, Effort, Understanding

Explore more quotes by Kenneth Tynan

"A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening."

Time

"What, when drunk, one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober."

Woman

"A city whose living immediacy is so urgent that when I am in it I lose all sense of the past."

Living

"A neurosis is a secret that you don't know you are keeping."

Psychology

"Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding."

Art

"A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car."

Car

"A novel is a static thing that one moves through; a play is a dynamic thing that moves past one."

Past

"Not content to have the audience in the palm of his hand, he goes one further and clinches his fist."

Content

"Pearl is a disease of oysters. Levant is a disease of Hollywood."

Fame

"The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic."

Writing