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Writing Quotes

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"Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it."
Margaret Haddix
"Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it."
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"We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard."
Voltaire
"We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard."
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"She would give them order. She would create constellations."
Thomas Pynchon
"She would give them order. She would create constellations."
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"The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine."
Robert Bresson
"The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine."
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"For a director and a producer to be named on the writing credits is practically unheard of."
Terry Southern
"For a director and a producer to be named on the writing credits is practically unheard of."
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"I have a great book. It's called Stantasyland. Except I don't have the money to buy a million copies to put it on the bestsellers list."
Stanley Victor Paskavich
"I have a great book. It's called Stantasyland. Except I don't have the money to buy a million copies to put it on the bestsellers list."
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"I write into an old book that smells of dust and whose pages are floppy with damp. Sometimes the ink splodges onto the paper, other times it will barely leave the nib of my pen."
Fennel Hudson
"I write into an old book that smells of dust and whose pages are floppy with damp. Sometimes the ink splodges onto the paper, other times it will barely leave the nib of my pen."
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"A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood."
Leo Rosten
"A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood."
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"Luckily, in my case, I have managed, by writing, to do the one thing that I always wanted to do."
Jonathan Coe
"Luckily, in my case, I have managed, by writing, to do the one thing that I always wanted to do."
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"A pen that has clocked up a million words, a lifetime's memories, is worth more than the centrepiece in a jeweller's window."
Fennel Hudson
"A pen that has clocked up a million words, a lifetime's memories, is worth more than the centrepiece in a jeweller's window."
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"Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real."
Sara Sheridan
"Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real."
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"After I've sent my revised draft to my agent and editor, they suggest more improvement sand again, this revision phase can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months."
Margaret Haddix
"After I've sent my revised draft to my agent and editor, they suggest more improvement sand again, this revision phase can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months."
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"I want to tell a story and shape it all the way through to the end."
Conrad Hall
"I want to tell a story and shape it all the way through to the end."
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"But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is always only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found."
Paul Engle
"But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is always only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found."
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"In writing I found something I could do at least as well as my peers, if not better."
Brian P. Cleary
"In writing I found something I could do at least as well as my peers, if not better."
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"Seventy percent of what I write, I throw out. I can write very easily, but writing original things is the hard bit."
Mike Rutherford
"Seventy percent of what I write, I throw out. I can write very easily, but writing original things is the hard bit."
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"I am still interested in the long or serial poem, but have written a few smaller things. I may start sending to journals again in a year or so... that's about it."
George Murray
"I am still interested in the long or serial poem, but have written a few smaller things. I may start sending to journals again in a year or so... that's about it."
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"I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing."
Walter Lord
"I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing."
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"Writing with you is the only thing that keeps me alive."
David Hackworth
"Writing with you is the only thing that keeps me alive."
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"Eventually the bad stuff I'm writing turns into better stuff. Other times, I've just walked away from what I was working on, and figured I'd have a better perspective when I came back to it."
Margaret Haddix
"Eventually the bad stuff I'm writing turns into better stuff. Other times, I've just walked away from what I was working on, and figured I'd have a better perspective when I came back to it."
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"If I did anything 'next,' I would do writing."
Ellen Muth
"If I did anything 'next,' I would do writing."
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"For over a year I continued to submit mss, and have them rejected - the last few with rejection letters indicated the story was pretty good, but I was American."
Nora Roberts
"For over a year I continued to submit mss, and have them rejected - the last few with rejection letters indicated the story was pretty good, but I was American."
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"A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning."
James Dickey
"A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning."
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"I'm a third done into a new book but sorry - I have a superstition about talking about it!"
Joanna Trollope
"I'm a third done into a new book but sorry - I have a superstition about talking about it!"
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"Anyone who claims to be good at lying is obviously bad at lying. Thus - as a writer myself - I cannot comment on whether or not writers are exceptionally good liars, because whatever I said would actually mean its complete opposite."
Chuck Klosterman
"Anyone who claims to be good at lying is obviously bad at lying. Thus - as a writer myself - I cannot comment on whether or not writers are exceptionally good liars, because whatever I said would actually mean its complete opposite."
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"I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it."
William Faulkner
"I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it."
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"The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter."
Blaise Pascal
"The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter."
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"My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day."
Augusten Burroughs
"My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day."
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"Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing."
Fannie Hurst
"Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing."
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"I think I'm drawn to writing about something which feels intense and important."
Rose Tremain
"I think I'm drawn to writing about something which feels intense and important."
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"Sometimes writing is running downhill, your fingers jerking behind you on the keyboard the way your legs do when they can't quite keep up with gravity."
Rainbow Rowell
"Sometimes writing is running downhill, your fingers jerking behind you on the keyboard the way your legs do when they can't quite keep up with gravity."
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"It has always been something I could do, and it may seem odd that in my case I seem to create an interesting narrative and frustrate the reader's opportunities to follow it at every step."
Harry Mathews
"It has always been something I could do, and it may seem odd that in my case I seem to create an interesting narrative and frustrate the reader's opportunities to follow it at every step."
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"The lived experiences which could not find adequate scientific expression in the substance doctrine of rational psychology were now validated in light of new and better methods."
Wilhelm Dilthey
"The lived experiences which could not find adequate scientific expression in the substance doctrine of rational psychology were now validated in light of new and better methods."
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"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."
Soren Kierkegaard
"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."
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"A word only writes Its night and ridesIts dream."
Dejan Stojanovic
"A word only writes Its night and ridesIts dream."
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"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste."
Marcel Duchamp
"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste."
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"What I do say is that I can write verse, and that the writing of verse in strict form is the best possible training for writing good prose."
Philip Pullman
"What I do say is that I can write verse, and that the writing of verse in strict form is the best possible training for writing good prose."
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"Certainly the plagiarism, and dealing with the fallout of it, was the most difficult thing I've ever faced since I started writing."
Nora Roberts
"Certainly the plagiarism, and dealing with the fallout of it, was the most difficult thing I've ever faced since I started writing."
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"I'm not happy when I'm writing, but I'm more unhappy when I'm not."
Fannie Hurst
"I'm not happy when I'm writing, but I'm more unhappy when I'm not."
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"If you know anything about James Whitcomb Riley, you know that Little Orphan Annie is one of the most fantastic characters who ever lived in America before Charlie Chaplin."
Marguerite Young
"If you know anything about James Whitcomb Riley, you know that Little Orphan Annie is one of the most fantastic characters who ever lived in America before Charlie Chaplin."
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"I want my prose to be as clear as a pane of glass."
Tracy Kidder
"I want my prose to be as clear as a pane of glass."
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"The purpose of a writer is to show the beauty and tragedy of life in the reader's own mirror."
Debasish Mridha
"The purpose of a writer is to show the beauty and tragedy of life in the reader's own mirror."
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"With my own memoirs, they are truthful, and I write everything fully expecting to some day end up televised on Court TV, and I'm fully prepared to be challenged legally on it."
Augusten Burroughs
"With my own memoirs, they are truthful, and I write everything fully expecting to some day end up televised on Court TV, and I'm fully prepared to be challenged legally on it."
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"I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay."
Kate DiCamillo
"I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay."
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"Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
Mark Twain
"Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
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"My first semester, I got a D in creative writing."
Conrad Hall
"My first semester, I got a D in creative writing."
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"And eventually as I kept writing it, something emerged that was not quite me but a version of me."
Larry David
"And eventually as I kept writing it, something emerged that was not quite me but a version of me."
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"Sometimes I wish the writing and drawing were more integrated."
Alison Bechdel
"Sometimes I wish the writing and drawing were more integrated."
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"I think that the justices were totally answering the way that they should. I think that the senators, as best I could tell, for the most part, Democrat and Republican, respected that."
Fred Thompson
"I think that the justices were totally answering the way that they should. I think that the senators, as best I could tell, for the most part, Democrat and Republican, respected that."
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"All the nice things about Suzanne are me. All the things that aren't nice, that was just the writing."
Delta Burke
"All the nice things about Suzanne are me. All the things that aren't nice, that was just the writing."
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