"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."

Writing, Exploration, Nothing

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"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."

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 E. L. Doctorow

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."

Writing

"In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment."

Life

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing."

People

"The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century."

Reason

"It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

Car

"History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth."

History

"I can walk into a bookstore and hand over my credit card and they don't know who the hell I am. Maybe that says something about bookstore clerks."

Identity

"I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad."

Experience

"I thought I would lose, so I didn't prepare a speech."

Thought

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."

Being