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Writing39 quotes
Yeah, I try to leave out the parts that people skip. — Elmore Leonard · 1985I asked him one time what type of writing brought the most money and the agent says, "Ransom notes." — Elmore Leonard · 1990Good prose is like a windowpane. — George Orwell · 1946Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style. — Jonathan Swift · 1720What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in. — Gustave Flaubert · 1851It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts. — Gustave Flaubert · 1851All 39 quotes →Good writing6 quotes
Good prose is like a windowpane. — George Orwell · 1946Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style. — Jonathan Swift · 1720When we see a natural style, we are quite surprised and delighted, for we expected to see an author and we find a man. — Blaise Pascal · 1662A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. — Henry David Thoreau · 1849A good writer seems to be writing about himself, (but never is,) but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself, & all things. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1867Words have weight, sound, and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to. — W. Somerset Maugham · 1948Editing4 quotes
My pencils outlast their erasers. — Vladimir Nabokov · 1962When the grim reaper comes to get me, he'll have to give me a few extra hours to revise my last words. — Flannery O'Connor · 1959A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is Left out of it. — Mark Twain · 1897I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil. — Truman Capote · 1985Power of literature4 quotes
Good prose is like a windowpane. — George Orwell · 1946Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. — Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1848Surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do. — Jhumpa Lahiri · 2012I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, "You know, that's the truth. I wasn't there, and I wasn't a six-foot black girl, but that's the truth." — Maya Angelou · 2013Literature2 quotes
Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. — Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1848Surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do. — Jhumpa Lahiri · 2012Perseverance2 quotes
I have several walls in several rooms of my house covered with the snowstorm of rejections, but they didn't realize what a strong person I was, I persevered and wrote a thousand more dreadful short stories, which were rejected in turn. — Ray Bradbury · 2002I will write until my knuckles are worn and my brain bewildered, but I will write on and on. — William Styron · 1951Power of words2 quotes
Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. — Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1848Surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do. — Jhumpa Lahiri · 2012Stories2 quotes
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you. — Zora Neale Hurston · 1942When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand. — Raymond Chandler · 1950Universality of literature2 quotes
A good writer seems to be writing about himself, (but never is,) but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself, & all things. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1867I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, "You know, that's the truth. I wasn't there, and I wasn't a six-foot black girl, but that's the truth." — Maya Angelou · 2013Artist and audience1 quote
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. — Robert Frost · 1939Bad writing1 quote
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. — George Orwell · 1946Books1 quote
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. — Francis Bacon · 1625Challenges of writing1 quote
What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in. — Gustave Flaubert · 1851Creative impulse1 quote
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you. — Zora Neale Hurston · 1942Creative process1 quote
I don't wait to be struck by lightning and don't need certain slants of light in order to write. — Toni Morrison · 1981Death1 quote
When the grim reaper comes to get me, he'll have to give me a few extra hours to revise my last words. — Flannery O'Connor · 1959Dedication1 quote
I will write until my knuckles are worn and my brain bewildered, but I will write on and on. — William Styron · 1951Exile1 quote
For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live. — Theodor Adorno · 1951Grim Reaper1 quote
When the grim reaper comes to get me, he'll have to give me a few extra hours to revise my last words. — Flannery O'Connor · 1959Home1 quote
I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it. — William Faulkner · 1956Incremental improvement1 quote
The first draft of anything is shit. — Ernest Hemingway · 1935Inspiration1 quote
I don't wait to be struck by lightning and don't need certain slants of light in order to write. — Toni Morrison · 1981Last Words1 quote
When the grim reaper comes to get me, he'll have to give me a few extra hours to revise my last words. — Flannery O'Connor · 1959Pleasures of writing1 quote
It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts. — Gustave Flaubert · 1851Plot1 quote
When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand. — Raymond Chandler · 1950Productivity1 quote
I've often fantasized I would get a lot of writing done if I were put in prison for a minor crime. Three to six months. — Amy Tan · 2013Punctuation1 quote
An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke. — F. Scott FitzgeraldReading1 quote
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. — Francis Bacon · 1625Rejection1 quote
I have several walls in several rooms of my house covered with the snowstorm of rejections, but they didn't realize what a strong person I was, I persevered and wrote a thousand more dreadful short stories, which were rejected in turn. — Ray Bradbury · 2002Self-expression1 quote
The pen is the tongue of the soul. — Miguel de Cervantes · 1615