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db8b69b You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won't really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we'll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won't wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be. writer writing writers Anne Lamott
bc5f586 She was a beautiful dreamer. The kind of girl, who kept her head in the clouds, loved above the stars and left regret beneath the earth she walked on. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
28f0d43 Death is the easy part, the hard part is living and knowing you could be so much more then you're willing to be. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
e130478 Sometimes the most beautiful people are beautifully broken. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
08a7333 Sometimes to self-discover you must self-destruct. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
5f8d142 A tamed woman will never leave her mark in the world. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
dc10277 Somewhere along the way we all go a bit mad. So burn, let go and dive into the horror, because maybe it's the chaos which helps us find where we belong. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
0c7b3e0 The best kind of humans are the ones who stay. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
0dfb54b We swallowed the chaos because we knew we didn't want to be ordinary. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
23956c8 She was broken, I think it's because she loved too much and she was always blind to the fact that love too is sometimes broken. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
f99c3ea Madness and chaos are self-destructing but over thinking is the suicide. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
211c323 If I lived a million lives, I would've felt a million feelings and I still would've fallen a million times for you. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
f3468dd "But how?" my students ask. "How do you actually do it?" You sit down, I say. You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. So you sit down at, say, nine every morning, or ten every night. You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on the computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child. You look at the ceiling, and over at the clock, yawn, and stare at the paper again. Then, with your fingers poised on the keyboard, you squint at an image that is forming in your mind -- a scene, a locale, a character, whatever -- and you try to quiet your mind so you can hear what that landscape or character has to say above the other voices in your mind." writer writing file how-to-write imagine focus quiet Anne Lamott
6fd6715 It's funny, for all it took was a broken heart and that alone was enough, enough for her to do everything she ever dreamed of. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
372a061 Appreciate the moment of a first kiss; it may be the last time you own your heart. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
b97d9ec Suddenly, everything was beautiful. The way she viewed the world was nothing more but a reflection of herself. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
c357f7f The truth is I didn't need therapy; I just needed to feel loved and know that someone out there craved my attention. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
f143eda Society will always be too fragile to accept us for all that makes us beautiful. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
9fa5dfa I had to learn to live without you and I couldn't make sense of it, because I left so much of me inside of you. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
b63aaa4 To be human is to be broken and broken is its own kind of beautiful. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
508c33a He was a writer and words were his weapons. words writer Christopher Moore
cf461a1 She was broken from moment to moment, watching her world collide she felt lost inside herself. She fell apart for a passion that flamed beneath her. She waited and died a hundred times, it dripped from her pores. The moment she let go, she soared over the stillness like the star she was born to be. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
32dffd8 It was never about the world being too big, it was more like she was too much for the world to handle. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
7994c48 Maybe I hope too much. Maybe I dream too much or maybe I love too much to just give up on you. happyquotes inspired instadaily instaquote pinquotes poems quoteoftheday relationships rmdrake spokenword vsco writer poetry writing quote hope inspirational inspirationalquotes sadquotes typewriter tattoo sayings lovequotes quotes robert m drake
14f07af A writer flirts with schizophrenia, nurtures synesthesia, and embraces obsessive-compulsive disorder. Your art feeds on you, your soul, and, yes, to a degree, your sanity. Writing novels worth reading will bugger up your mind, jeopardize your relationships, and distend your life. You have been warned. irony writer inspirational David Mitchell
2fc670a I am a writer. Imagining what someone would say or do comes to me as naturally as breathing. writer imagining imagine natural Joan Didion
7c87338 "Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fulfilled all the rules of art." (Last words, according to Dickens's obituary in .)" writer inspirational fulfillment last-words natural rules Charles Dickens
98cb8ac A scene should be selected by the writer for haunted-ness-of-mind interest. If you're not haunted by something, as by a dream, a vision, or a memory, which are involuntary, you're not interested or even involved. writer writing vision jack-kerouac memory Jack Kerouac
7404189 Writing, then, was a substitute for myself: if you don't love me, love my writing & love me for my writing. It is also much more: a way of ordering and reordering the chaos of experience. poems writer poetry writing plath journals sylvia-plath poet Sylvia Plath
08941d1 She doesn't understand that a writer is a special creature--that I'm different from everyone else. I'm not saying I'm superior to other people, just more sensitive, I guess. writer Christopher Moore
57bcd1a The writer is the duelist who never fights at the stated hour, who gathers up an insult, like another curious object, a collector's item, spreads it out on his desk later, and then engages in a duel with it verbally. Some people call it weakness. I call it postponement. What is weakness in the man becomes a quality in the writer. For he preserves, collects what will explode later in his work. That is why the writer is the loneliest man in the world; because he lives, fights, dies, is reborn always alone; all his roles are played behind a curtain. In life he is an incongruous figure. writer writing passivity Anaïs Nin
579c8b2 I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit or escape. I suppose if that definition is strictly held to, then a writer of stories is a liar - if he is financially fortunate. story writer john-steinbeck lie John Steinbeck
ecb279e It is no worse, because I write of it. It would be no better, if I stopped my most unwilling hand. Nothing can undo it; nothing can make it otherwise than as it was. writer writing Charles Dickens
a084a80 The real novelist, the perfectly simple human being, could go on, indefinitely imaging. writer novelist Virginia Woolf
d50868e Muses are fickle, and many a writer, peering into the voice, has escaped paralysis by ascribing the creative responsibility to a talisman: a lucky charm, a brand of paper, but most often a writing instrument. Am I writing well? Thank my pen. Am I writing badly? Don't blame me blame my pen. By such displacements does the fearful imagination defend itself. writer writing muses paper pen Anne Fadiman
2be620a The stories that unfold in the space of a writer's study, the objects chosen to watch over a desk, the books selected to sit on the shelves, all weave a web of echoes and reflections of meanings and affections, that lend a visitor the illusion that something of the owner of this space lives on between these walls, even if the owner is no more. writer desk shelves study Alberto Manguel
8740c29 "Toni Morrison said, "The function of freedom is to free someone else," and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh, well, what are you going to do? Get it all down. Let it pour out of you and onto the page. Write an incredibly shitty, self-indulgent, whiny, mewling first draft. Then take out as many of the excesses as you can." writing-life writer writing anne-lamott first-draft first-drafts bird-by-bird writing-advice write writers Anne Lamott
d22aaa8 During the act of making something, I experience a kind of blissful absence of the self and a loss of time. When I am done, I return to both feeling as restored as if I had been on a trip. I almost never get this feeling any other way. I once spent sixteen hours making 150 wedding invitations by hand and was not for one instance of that time tempted to eat or look at my watch. By contrast, if seated at the computer, I check my email conservatively 30,000 times a day. When I am writing, I must have a snack, call a friend, or abuse myself every ten minutes. I used to think that this was nothing more than the difference between those things we do for love and those we do for money. But that can't be the whole story. I didn't always write for a living, and even back when it was my most fondly held dream to one day be able to do so, writing was always difficult. Writing is like pulling teeth. From my dick. writer writing humor procrastination artist David Rakoff
cf4b7d0 ...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition. writer inspiration artist Steven Pressfield
f0cb4b4 I am smiling a big adopted-orphan smile as I write this ... I still love scribbling the word - WRITER - any time on a form, questionnaire, document asks for my occupation. Fine, I write personality quizzes, I don't write about the Great Issues of the Day, but I think it's fair to say I am a writer ... ('Adopted-orphan smile', I mean, that's not bad, come on.) lies writer writing reality fantasy compulsive-lying crazy-bitch out-of-touch-with-reality wannabewriter superiority-complex self-righteous egotistical vainity vain pretending wannabe ego smile smiling liar lie Gillian Flynn
865cdbc You sure about this writer thing son? writer Christopher Moore
a42e17c I keep on going with this sad and hungry and sordid, this limping and mutilated story, because after all I want you to hear it....By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you....Because I'm telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are. writer writing storytelling Margaret Atwood
fe1b286 Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to produce these books? Is it possible that ascertained the mechanical principles of 'Virtual Velocity,' the laws of falling bodies and of all motion; that ascertained the true position of the earth and accounted for all celestial phenomena; that discovered his three laws--discoveries of such importance that the 8th of May, 1618, may be called the birth-day of modern science; that gave to the world the Method of Fluxions, the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and the Decomposition of Light; that , , , and , almost completed the science of mathematics; that all the discoveries in optics, hydrostatics, pneumatics and chemistry, the experiments, discoveries, and inventions of , , and , of , and and of all the pioneers of progress--that all this was accomplished by uninspired men, while the writer of the Pentateuch was directed and inspired by an infinite God? Is it possible that the codes of China, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome were made by man, and that the laws recorded in the Pentateuch were alone given by God? Is it possible that and , , and , and , and all the poets of the world, and all their wondrous tragedies and songs are but the work of men, while no intelligence except the infinite God could be the author of the Pentateuch? Is it possible that of all the books that crowd the libraries of the world, the books of science, fiction, history and song, that all save only one, have been produced by man? Is it possible that of all these, the bible only is the work of God? discoveries progress tragedy libraries poets shakespeare india light writer fiction books inspiration bible science songs intelligence alessandro-volta benjamin-franklin beranger bonaventura-cavalieri bonaventura-francesco-cavalieri burns cavalieri chemistry china copernicus descartes euclid experiments franklin fulton galileo galileo-galilei galvani gottfried-leibniz gottfried-von-leibniz gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz gottfried-wilhelm-von-leibniz greece hydrostatics inventions isaac-newton james-watt johann-von-goethe johannes-kepler kepler laws-of-motion leibniz luigi-aloisio-galvani luigi-galvani math mathematics morse newton nicolaus-copernicus optics pentateuch pierre-jean-de-béranger pioneers pneumatics rene-descartes richard-trevithick robert-burns robert-fulton rome samuel-finley-breese-morse samuel-morse schiller the-bible theory-of-gravity theory-of-universal-gravitation trevethick volta watt Æschylus johann-wolfgang-von-goethe goethe egypt william-shakespeare Robert G. Ingersoll
b841d30 To be read. To be heard. To be seen. I want to be read, I want to be heard. I don't need to be seen. To write requires an ego, a belief that what you say matters. Writing also requires an aching curiosity leading you to discover, uncover, what is gnawing at your bones. Words have a weight to them. How you choose to present them and to whom is a matter of style and choice. words writer writing curiousity disvoery style ego Terry Tempest Williams
c93318f You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves. writer novelist write Pat Conroy
418f894 There are some catastrophes that a poor writer's pen cannot describe and which he is obliged to leave to the imagination of his readers with a bald statement of the facts. writer Alexandre Dumas
e783b7b For when I trace back the years I have liv'd, gathering them up in my Memory, I see what a chequer'd Work Of Nature my life has been. If I were now to inscribe my own History with its unparalleled Sufferings and surprizing Adventures (as the Booksellers might indite it), I know that the great Part of the World would not believe the Passages there related, by reason of the Strangeness of them, but I cannot help their Unbelief; and if the Reader considers them to be but dark Conceits, then let him bethink himself that Humane life is quite out of the Light and that we are all Creatures of Darknesse. time history writer reader Peter Ackroyd
c139396 Writers will often find themselves steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion. writer writing e-b-white eb-white strunk-and-white strunk-white the-elements-of-style william-strunk-jr author authors writing-advice write William Strunk Jr.
ad0d2ec A writer's age at the time of a work's composition is never irrelevant. writer author relevance Margaret Atwood
58d8b67 Truth for anyone is a very complex thing. For a writer, what you leave out says as much as those things you include. What lies beyond the margin of the text? The photographer frames the shot; writers frame their world. writer trust narrative unspoken Jeanette Winterson
421e852 I have always noticed that these artists and writers are very unbalanced writer unbalanced writers-quotes writers Agatha Christie
398cc17 "I like to think that Henry James said his classic line, "A writer is someone on whom nothing is lost," while looking for his glasses, and that they were on top of his head." writer writing authoring authors write on-writing writers Anne Lamott
edae8e2 "If you ask a twenty-one-year-old poet whose poetry he likes, he might say, unblushing, "Nobody's," In his youth, he has not yet understood that poets like poetry, and novelists like novels; he himself likes only the role, the thought of himself in a hat." literature writer poetry writing pretentious pretentiousness the-writing-life poetic writing-advice write artistry poet Annie Dillard
b640fef The pale organisms of literary heroes feeding under the author's supervision swell gradually with the reader's lifeblood; so that the genius of a writer consists in giving them the faculty to adapt themselves to that - not very appetizing - food and thrive on it, sometimes for centuries. writer writing reader Vladimir Nabokov
c3920bb 12. Se escrevo o que sinto e porque assim diminuo a febre de sentir. O que confesso nao tem importancia, pois nada tem importancia Por: Bernado Soares In: Livro do Desassossego writer Fernando Pessoa
e95029a I thought with melancholy how an author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do. writer writing book W. Somerset Maugham
1b9fc85 "The viewpoint character in each story is usually someone trapped in a living nightmare, but this doesn't guarantee that we and the protagonist are at one. In fact Woolrich often makes us pull away from the person at the center of the storm, splitting our reaction in two, stripping his protagonist of moral authority, denying us the luxury of unequivocal identification, drawing characters so psychologically warped and sometimes so despicable that a part of us wants to see them suffer. Woolrich also denies us the luxury of total disidentification with all sorts of sociopaths, especially those who wear badges. His Noir Cop tales are crammed with acts of police sadism, casually committed or at least endorsed by the detective protagonist. These monstrosities are explicitly condemned almost never and the moral outrage we feel has no internal support in the stories except the objective horror of what is shown, so that one might almost believe that a part of Woolrich wants us to enjoy the spectacles. If so, it's yet another instance of how his most powerful novels and stories are divided against themselves so as to evoke in us a divided response that mirrors his own self-division. ("Introduction")" writer writing short-fiction fiction-writing cornell-woolrich crime-fiction noir noir-fiction writers Francis M. Nevins
27d1aab "Only after a writer lets literature shape her can she perhaps shape literature. In working-class France, when an apprentice got hurt, or when he got tired, the experienced workers said, "It is the trade entering his body." The art must enter the body, too." literature reading writer writing the-writing-life art writing-advice write artistry read discipline reader artist Annie Dillard
fee0a2d Henry had written a novel because there was a hole in him that needed filling, a question that needed answering, a patch of canvas that needed painting--that blend of anxiety, curiosity and joy that is at the origin of art--and he had filled the hole, answered the question, splashed colour on the canvas, all done for himself, because he had to. Then complete strangers told him that his book had filled a hole in them, had answered a question, had brought colour to their lives. The comfort of strangers, be it a smile, a pat on the shoulder or a word of praise, is truly a comfort. writing-life writer joy writing life inspirational writers-on-writing book painting strangers curiosity creativity Yann Martel
8db806d And then, unbidden, seemingly out of nowhere, a thought or image arrives. Some will float into your head like goldfish, lovely, bright, orange, and weightless, and you follow them like a child at an aquarium that was thought to be without fish. Others will step of the shadows like Boo Radley and make you catch your breath or take a step backward. They're often so rich, these unbidden thoughts, and so clear that they feel indelible. But I say write them all down anyway. writer writing authoring book-ideas getting-an-idea writing-ideas write idea ideas Anne Lamott
3df2589 The novelist is required to create the illusion of a whole world with believable people in it, and the chief difference between the novelist who is an orthodox Christian and the novelist who is merely a naturalist is that the Christian novelist lives in a larger universe. He believes that the natural world contains the supernatural. And this doesn't mean that his obligation to portray the natural is less; it means it is greater. writer writing christian-writers novelist realistic-fiction writers-on-writing perspective perception perception-of-reality realism Flannery O'Connor
667461c All this happened in much less time than it takes to tell, since I am trying to interpret for you into slow speech the instantaneous effect of visual impressions. writer love overly-descriptive retell retold show-and-tell boring exposition witness explanation testimony why retelling description creativity Joseph Conrad
84abdf0 I will not stop singing the Muses who set me dancing. tragedy writer poetry joy work inspiration inspirational-quotes happiness life love euripides muses dancing sing creativity poet Anne Carson
308dd47 It isn't dying I'm afraid of, it isn't that at all; I know what it is to die, I've died already. It is the endless obliteration, the knowledge that there will never be anything else. That's what I can't stand, to try so hard and to end in nothing. You know what I mean, don't you? ... I really loved to write. writer writing writers dying Cornell Woolrich
36ab09a You will never know all there is to know. You will learn until your final days. Then you will inspire someone else. This is what an artist does. artisit writer writing Mitch Albom
665df0f [Patricia Highsmith] was a figure of contradictions: a lesbian who didn't particularly like women; a writer of the most insightful psychological novels who, at times, appeared bored by people; a misanthrope with a gentle, sweet nature. psychological writer nature people women writing gentle misanthrope contradictions lesbian novels insightful sweet like insight Andrew Wilson
2521779 There are few experiences as depressing as that anxious barren state known as writer's block, where you sit staring at your blank page like a cadaver, feeling your mind congeal, feeling you talent run down your leg and into your sock. writer writing writer-problems writer-s-block writes write Anne Lamott
e687b72 You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. words writing-life writer writing imagination writing-inspiration sandcastles writing-quotes writing-philosophy writing-craft writing-advice writing-process Anne Lamott
8254acb On every page, confidence fights with self-doubt. Every sentence is an act of faith. Why would anybody want to do it? writer writing novelist purpose questions David Morrell
01890a5 An editor sleeping with his writer was not as bad as a psychoanalyst sleeping with his patient, or even a professor sleeping with an undergraduate, let alone a president with an intern. writer Edward St. Aubyn
b275d0c There is his religion of art, my young successor: rejecting life! Not living is what he makes his beautiful fiction out of! And you will now be the person he is not living with! writer writing Philip Roth
f6e4310 Whether the underlying cause of your dependency is a chemical imbalance, unresolved events from the past, beliefs you hold that are inconsistent with what is true, an inability to cope with current conditions, or a combination of these four causes, know this: not only are all the causes of dependency within you, but all the solutions are within you as well. writer depression writing books author los-angeles-rehab rehab-center holistic-treatment malibu-rehab alcohol-rehab drug-rehab holistic-health passages-ventura substance-abuse passages-malibu addiction-cure addiction-treatment-center alcohol-abuse chris-prentiss drug-abuse quotes Chris Prentiss
43311a4 For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts. writer writing the-writing-process writing-advice write on-writing Anne Lamott
bceec9b Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. writer writing first-drafts author write Anne Lamott
ab2a1ab I wasn't that good you know. What I was was a guy who could write a little, publishing in magazines surrounded by people who couldn't write at all. So I looked pretty good. But I never thought I was that good at all. All that I thought was that I tried to tell the truth. writer writing noir-fiction Cornell Woolrich
3868884 For that is what you are, that is who you are - you are an author. You cannot cease to write any more than you can cease to breathe...This difficult season will pass - your eyes and mind will inevitably be opened once more to the wealth of ideas all around you...And even if the ideas around you fall short of what you seek - even if, as you say, you have not the heart to write... perhaps it is your heart you ought to write of. - Laurie to Jo, on writing writer writing inspiration writing-from-the-heart ideas Trix Wilkins
717dcd5 I do not so much write a book as sit up with it, as with a dying friend. During visiting hours, I enter its room with dread and sympathy for its many disorders. I hold its hand and hope it will get better. This tender relationship can change in a twinkling. If you skip a visit or two, a work in progress will turn on you. writer writing the-literary-process the-writing-process the-writing-life write Annie Dillard
c2e4244 There may be a Nurse Ratched-like listing of things that must be done right this moment: foods that must come out of the freezer, appointments that must be canceled or made, hairs that must be tweezed. But you hold an imaginary gun to your head and make yourself stay at the desk. writer writing bird-by-bird the-writing-process writing-help writing-advice write on-writing Anne Lamott
4753e09 I struggled with a nebulous work which seemed now a , now a vast novel, wherein a hero not unlike myself pursued, amid ghostly incidents, a series of reflections about life and art. writer writing the-black-prince iris-murdoch struggling meta plot Iris Murdoch
b168da8 When you get everything you wanted, I think maybe you do have to be a little grateful for the people who got you there.. whether or not they thought they were doing you any favors at the time. writer life big-girls-don-t-cry novel Jennifer Weiner
9300635 E un libro sull'amore capace di trascendere l'aspetto fisico, su come la bellezza sia un confine arbitrario e facile da superare, su come due persone possono entrare in sintonia nonostante le differenze fisiche, su come possono innamorarsi malgrado il loro aspetto esteriore li separi dal resto del mondo. writer ruth-dave scar Jennifer Weiner
2cbe5a9 "If Laura was so prolific with poems, and in truth she was, then what was the problem with Megan's request? Couldn't Laura, with a little doing, keep stringing together line after line of words and construct, in time, a novel? It seemed logical, but there was the matter of finding an idea and sustaining it. Only fire could do that. The fire of rebellion. Mario Vargas Llosa had not used the term "fire" exactly, but rather had discussed the presence of "seditious roots" that could "dynamite the world" the writer inhabited. He claimed that writing stories was an exercise in freedom and quarreling--out-and-out rebellion, whether or not the writer was conscious of it. And this rebellion, Vargas Llosa reminded his readers, was why the Spanish Inquisition had strictly censored works of fiction, prohibiting them for three hundred years in the American colonies." writer writing novel-writing writing-a-novel mario-vargas-llosa L.L. Barkat
983b6ca I earned a mater's degree in journalism and took the first job offered, as a sports writer. Instead of chasing my own fame, I wrote about famous athletes chasing theirs. writer work life journalism fame job Mitch Albom
3b707a4 I lost my voice, but I had words. words writer writing Roxane Gay
8d0063a There is a kind of despair involved in creation which I am sure any artist knows all about. In art, as in morality, great things go by the board because at the crucial moment we blink our eyes. When is the crucial moment? Greatness is to recognize it and be able to hold it and to extend it. But for most of us the space between 'dreaming on things to come' and 'it is too late, it is all over' is too tiny to enter. And so we let each thing go, thinking vaguely that it will always be given to us to try again. Thus works of art, and thus whole lives of men, are spoilt by blinking and moving quickly on. I often found that I had ideas for stories, but by the time I had thought them out in detail they seemed to me hardly worth writing, as if I had already 'done' them: not because they were bad, but because they already belonged to the past and I had lost interest. My thoughts were soon stale to me. Some things I ruined by starting them too soon. Others by thinking them so intensely in my head that they were over before they began. Projects would change in a second from hazy uncommitted dreams into unsalvageable ancient history. Whole novels existed only in their titles. writer writing inspiration crucial-moment elusive the-black-prince iris-murdoch creative-process Iris Murdoch
b16c2d8 ...a great future behind him, already writer future old waste Angela Carter
fc689b1 I think you are talented an passionate, Isabella. More than you think and less than you expect. But there are a lot of people with talent and passion, and many of them never get anywhere. This is only the first step toward achieving anything in life. Natural talent is like an athlete's strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she is born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes an athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation, and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision weapon. writer writers-on-writing Carlos Ruiz Zafón
4521847 Charlotte Evans was used to feeling grungy. As a freelancer, she traveled on a shoestring, getting stories other writers did not, precisely because she wasn't fussy about how she lived. In the last twelve months, she had survived dust while writing about elephant keepers in Kenya, ice while writing about the spirit bear of British Columbia, and flies while writing about a family of nomads in India. writer explorer freelancer survival Barbara Delinsky
1e8a866 You'd drain someone dry for me? writer paranormal-urban-fantasy-romance vampires Mari Mancusi
debc5e3 People wonder at the romantic lives of poets and artists, but they should rather wonder at their gift of expression. The occurrences which pass unnoticed in the life of the average man in the existence of a writer of talent are profoundly interesting. It is the man they happen to that makes their significance. experiences poets writer writing maugham w-somerset-maugham expression authors W. Somerset Maugham
e157cfc [...] the day when male writers can speak for women is speeding by. Fast. writer writing Julie Phillips
81c76c0 "Did you... need something?" he asked in a tight voice. I swallowed hard, my mind racing with a million things to say. The fear pricking at me, telling me I had one last chance to wimp out. To walk away. But I shook my head. No. Not this time. "Yes," I said simply. "I need something." "And what, may I ask, do you need?" I met his eyes. "You." writer urban-fantasy-romance paranormal-romance vampires Mari Mancusi
75f13e1 Real men don't kiss with the gentleness of a butterfly's wing. writer uf-romance urban-fantasy-romance paranormal-romance vampires Mari Mancusi
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