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Writing Quotes
"A book can never be anything more than the impress of its author's thoughts; and the value of these will lie either in the matter about which he has thought, or in the form which his thoughts take, in other words, what it is that he has thought about it."
8
"Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles."
8
"I wrote a novel about the combat experiences I didn't have in Vietnam."
8
"Rule number four for me as a writer? Plotlines are like sharks: They either keep moving or they die."
8
"You know what you are best at, and writing is just not my thing, but I like it."
8
"The market for short stories is hard to break into, but a magazine editor isn't always looking for big names with which to sell his magazine - they're more willing to try stories by newcomers, if those tales are good."
8
"I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it."
8
"In The States I would have no edge, no advantage at all."
8
"Few writers are willing to admit writing is autobiographical."
8
"I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do---the actual act of writing---turns out to be the best part. It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward."
8
"Don't go overboard in avoiding "said. Basically, "said is the default for dialogue, and a good thing, too; it's an invisible word that doesn't draw attention to itself."
8
"You can't edit a blank page."
8
"If a reporter doesn't like the person he's writing about, it shows up in his article."
8
"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."
8
"You are just in the middle of a struggle with words which are really very stubborn things, with a blank page, with the damn thing that you use to write with, a pen or a typewriter, and you forget all about the reader when you are doing that."
8
"I'm big on having a blistering pace. That's one of the hallmarks of what I do, and that's not easy. I never blow up cars and things like that, so it's something else that keeps the suspense flowing. I try not to write a chapter that isn't going to turn on the movie projector in your head."
8
"If you don't have obsessions, don't write. my characters are obsessed."
8
"Because most writers have totally unrealistic concepts of how publishing works."
8
"What I said about John was that he liberated me from my anxieties about writing in a correct, acceptable way."
8
"Novels include padding; I think padding may be an essential part of the novel, for all I know."
8
"Great writing is great writing. It's as simple as all that."
8
"I think if the writing comes too easily, it shows - it's usually hard to read."
8
"I'm convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. If one is writing for one's own pleasure, that fear may be mild - timidity is the word I've used here. If, however, one is working under deadline - a school paper, a newspaper article, the SAT writing sample - that fear may be intense."
8
"The book is openly a kind of spiritual autobiography, but the trick is that on any other level it's a kind of insane collage of fragments of memory."
7
"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
7
"Writing, producing and directing, I must say, is incredibly satisfying and gratifying. I've never been happier."
7
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