Share and Discuss Writing Quotes!

[toni]

Hello! The purpose of this thread is to share quotes on writing. It should perk us up when there are days when we think "To Hell With Writing.


The following quotes are from an author/columnist/University of Philippines Creative Writing Professor/ U.P Vice President whom I am proud to call my good friend- Butch Dalisay (http://www.penmanila.net).


Writing involves more than a mastery of abstract patterns and concepts. In other words, writing is more than words, more than language. One needs to have lived and to have understood something about life, to have formed an attitude towards that life, and to have found a way of of re-expressing it in through the bold but also the precise indirections that make art out of raw experience.

Music and math can be intuited-but writing cannot.

Producing good, creative writers is like mining for precious stones, where a ton of ore might have to be torn out of the earth and sifted through to produce one small jewel-grade rock, which has yet to be cut and shaped by expert hands.

One needs a whole bunches of P's - preparation, perseverance, patience, and and passion - to move on from week to week without losing one's wits and one's humour. I have these p's in varying quantities, none of them in profusion.

Creative writing is a breath of intuition caught on paper.

[Virgil]

Music and math can be intuited-but writing cannot.

Well, I don't believe that music and math are intuitive. Do you think one can just intuitively pick up differential equations? If so, I wouldn't have gotten a C in college. Nor was I intuitively able to play the saxophone. ;)



Creative writing is a breath of intuition caught on paper.
:confused: Well, first he says it's not intuitive and now he says it is?

Frankly I don't believe that any skill is intuitive. One has to learn it. Perhaps there are those who learn it faster and better (geniuses), but nothing comes from nothing, as Shakespeare says.

[SummerSolstice]

Here's one I love:

“You have to write whichever book it is that wants to be written. And then, if it’s going to be too difficult for grownups, you write it for children.”
—Madeleine L’Engle

I just came across this recently and it helped me over a hump where I was worrying that I was directing my "children's" story more at myself than children. It made me realize that the story doesn't care who you tell it to, just that you tell it, and if you do it right, it'll work. Simple as that.

[toni]

Well, I don't believe that music and math are intuitive. Do you think one can just intuitively pick up differential equations? If so, I wouldn't have gotten a C in college. Nor was I intuitively able to play the saxophone. ;)

Hello, Uncle Virg! It would be clearer if you look at the attatchment I attatched below. That is the full context of his article. in any case, what he means is math and music can be intuited by geniuses, because they involve abstract thought patterns- take for example musical prodigy Mozart. If he can't do his music intuitively, then we wouldn't be calling him genius! (and neither am I, to be clear.):D :D



:confused: Well, first he says it's not intuitive and now he says it is?

Frankly I don't believe that any skill is intuitive. One has to learn it. Perhaps there are those who learn it faster and better (geniuses), but nothing comes from nothing, as Shakespeare says.

Okay, about this one. he means that, compared to other kinds of writing that need logical reasoning,- like writing editorials and school papers- creative writing depends a lot on the writer's gut feeling in terms where the characterizations and plot applies. "We can't intuit a whole novel without social experience, but with enough of that experience and a keen sense of craft (what we might call "talent" ), we can make creative decisions intuitively." he says.:D

[dramasnot6]

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
its funny because it is so so true....

[toni]

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
its funny because it is so so true....

Hey, Mira, I know who said that! It was screenwriter Gene Fowler, wasn't it?:D

Guy de Maupassant - "Just write.Don't worry about voice, tone, plot or structure. Don't worry about grammar, usage, punctuation or spelling. Get black on white. Just write."

I guess that is true. We will just have to worry about spelling and grammar later on when we edit.

Dr. Seuss's Horton- "If you mean what you say and you say what you mean-and you say it simply and honestly-it will be well written. All the rest is decoration.

A.S Byatt- "I read in order to find out how to write."

William Faulkner- "Read everything, trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it."

Voltaire- "Every style that is not boring is good.

[dramasnot6]

Hey, Mira, I know who said that! It was screenwriter Gene Fowler, wasn't it?:D

Guy de Maupassant - "Just write.Don't worry about voice, tone, plot or structure. Don't worry about grammar, usage, punctuation or spelling. Get black on white. Just write."

I guess that is true. We will just have to worry about spelling and grammar later on when we edit.

Dr. Seuss's Horton- "If you mean what you say and you say what you mean-and you say it simply and honestly-it will be well written. All the rest is decoration.

A.S Byatt- "I read in order to find out how to write."

William Faulkner- "Read everything, trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it."

Voltaire- "Every style that is not boring is good.


Indeed it was Gene Fowler! Good one toni!:thumbs_up

I love the ones youve posted above me! Especially
"I read in order to find out how to write." So many writers have told me that they feel guilty if some part of their text reflects or was deeply isnpired by another, like they were copying it. But that is far from the truth, there is no such thing as complete originality. It is a beautiful thing when you can not only enjoy but be inspired by a text you like.

[dramasnot6]

"Some authors should be paid by the quantity NOT written."

"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research."
I know that last one isnt specific to writing but i thought it was an appropriate companion for the quote you posted(that i mentioned above).

[Virgil]

This is a nice idea for a thread. Good thinking, toni. I haven't read that paper yet, I'm sorry. I will eventually. Here's a good practical quote:


Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
C. S. Lewis

[RobinHood3000]

Ernest Hemingway: "The first draft of anything is ****."

Keeps me from getting a big head about my latest masterpiece.

[toni]

I love the ones youve posted above me! Especially
"I read in order to find out how to write." So many writers have told me that they feel guilty if some part of their text reflects or was deeply isnpired by another, like they were copying it.

I am one of those who feel guilty, drama. When I've finished writing a story, I usually ask Lain for critique, and she would tell me that it had a "Neil Gaiman-ish element in it and a bit of J.K Rowling. And it would get worried-a lot. But I've already learned,.Sometimes, when we read a book or something more than thrice (like I always do) we tend to write the same exact sentences and phrases unconciously. The same goes with poems. Believe me, once, I wrote a line for a poem and it turned out surprisingly good, but awfullty familiar, and I would only realise later on that that exact same line was from Thomas Hardy.:bawling:


But that is far from the truth, there is no such thing as complete originality.

:thumbs_up Most writers form their preferences in writing style on an appreciation of good writing of others. Author Gore Vidal said " I was certainly under Hemingway's spell when I was very young, as we all were. I thought his prose were perfect until I read Stephen Crane and realized where he got it all from.." And Hemingway himself gave this list of stylistic influences:

"Mark Twain, Flaubert, Stendhal, Bach, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Andrew Marvell, John donne, Maupassant, the good Kipling, Thoreau, Captain Marryat, Shakespeare, Mozart, Quevedo, Dante, Vergil, Tintoretto, Heironymous Bosch, Breughel, Patinir, Goya, Giotto, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gaughin, San Juan de la cruz, Gongora... I put in painters, or started to, because I learn as much from painters how to write as from writers..



"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research." ).

Love that one, drame...:thumbs_up


I know that last one isnt specific to writing but i thought it was an appropriate companion for the quote you posted(that i mentioned above

You can put in any quote you want as long as it is good, Drama..:D



This is a nice idea for a thread. Good thinking, toni. I haven't read that paper yet, I'm sorry. I will eventually. Here's a good practical quote:
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
C. S. Lewis

I am quite guilty-again. Thanks for sharing, Uncle Virg, I really am learning loads.:D

[toni]

Thank you guys for supporting my thread..:)
And to Robin: I have yet to read your masterpiece but I am sure it truly is a masterpiece and that I'm going to be impressed- yet again. Expect my congratulatory PM soon.:D:D

[dramasnot6]

oh, are you writing a new story robin?

[Virgil]

Here's a good one:


"No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put at the right place."
Isaac Babel

[lavendar1]

The first draft of anything is sh** - Ernest Hemingway.

Gal dang, this works well to assuage the anxiety of ENG-101 students when they submit the first draft of their first essay...

[dramasnot6]

i love that Virgil. its how i feel after writing a sentence or phrase i really like.

[Laindessiel]

I always tell Toni that punctuations put in their right places can mean the difference between right and wrong, and you certainly don't want to be misinterpreted by the others. Commas, colons, semi-colons, quotation marks are put where they're meant to to involve clear thought and phrasing.

Toni is learning. I just sometimes tell her to edit some of her posts to correct punctuational errors. :nod:

[dramasnot6]

What a good sister/teacher you are Lain:)
I love the "Eats,Shoots,and leaves"/ "Eats shoots and leaves" example of the importance of punctuation.

[RobinHood3000]

Ehh - "Eats, shoots and leaves" has gotten so much repeated use that it's lost its novelty.

My apologies for being unclear - I was using "latest masterpiece" sarcastically to refer to any piece I'm working on in general. :blush:

[dramasnot6]

Ehh - "Eats, shoots and leaves" has gotten so much repeated use that it's lost its novelty.

My apologies for being unclear - I was using "latest masterpiece" sarcastically to refer to any piece I'm working on in general. :blush:

I suppose it has been overused...ah well, still a valid example. Glad to hear you're at least not lacking confidence about your writing there:p :D

[dramasnot6]

decided to pick a couple more up before heading off to bed. As much as i would like to spend another 6 hours on LitNet, cant be a vampiress forever :p


Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.

i found this both amusing and very, very touching. I felt an incredible attraction to the last part of this quote....i dont really know why.Perhaps it will come to me in the morrow.


When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.

Clarification of writing has always been my greatest challenge, i like to call the early stuff "brain vomit":lol: But when you show it to someone and they GET it, its a feeling of self-worth unlike any other...

[toni]

Clarification of writing has always been my greatest challenge, i like to call the early stuff "brain vomit":lol: But when you show it to someone and they GET it, its a feeling of self-worth unlike any other...


Yeah, when the others respond the way you hope they would, there really is no greater joy..

[toni]

Further digging into dusty, almost forgotten books...


On Writing


Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting or music does. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself. - Truman Capote


It is not wise to violate the rules until you know how to observe them - T.S. Eliot


Style only comes after long hard practice - William Styron


We are all apprentices, in a craft where no one ever becomes a master - Ernest Hemingway

Why Do You Write?


The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself - E. B. White


Mine is a standard that has to be met - William Faulkner


I write for it. For the sheer pleasure of it.- Eudora Welty


Writing Conditions


All you need, is a room without any particular interruptions - John Dos Passos


I enjoy working in the morning, as soon as the first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write - Ernest Hemingway


The ideal view for daily writing, is the blank brick wall of a cold storage warehouse. - Edna Ferber


Read



Read, read, read...Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it is not, throw it out the window. - William Faulkner

[Jean-Baptiste]

I'm not sure this actually belongs in this thread.
It's from "Tradition and the Individual Talent," and I like it very much.


Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.

~T.S. Eliot

[cuppajoe_9]

Well, I don't believe that music and math are intuitive.

On the subject of intuitive music:

http://www.myspace.com/lehospitalrule

This is my friend, who composed those songs and played every single intrument you hear on those recordings, despite knowing no more about musical theory than a caffeinated cat. Perhpas this subject deseves its own thread.

[jon1jt]

Well, I don't believe that music and math are intuitive. Do you think one can just intuitively pick up differential equations? If so, I wouldn't have gotten a C in college. Nor was I intuitively able to play the saxophone. ;)



:confused: Well, first he says it's not intuitive and now he says it is?

Frankly I don't believe that any skill is intuitive. One has to learn it. Perhaps there are those who learn it faster and better (geniuses), but nothing comes from nothing, as Shakespeare says.


why hasn't the world produced more shakespeares if "nothing comes from nothing"? the ability to write is as innate a talent as the accuracy and strength of a professional quarterback. sure, cultivation is necessary, but the predisposition for greatness is already there, etched in a person's DNA. a hard pill to swallow for many---shattering the "democratic" ideal that we all start out on an equal footing and progress the same. in his Tempting of America, former supreme court us justice nominee (& genius) Robert Bork called this 'nothing comes from nothing' notion a happy dream from happy dreamers. :D

[Jean-Baptiste]

I've got a quote that seems relevant to this. It's from Giambattista Vico's Scienza Nuova

In every pursuit men without natural aptitude succeed by obstinate study of technique, but in poetry he who lacks native ability cannot succeed by technique.

It's only an appeal to authority on my part, but I do consider Vico an authority.

[RobinHood3000]

"Intuitive" - not the same as "born with," is it?

[cuppajoe_9]

"Intuitive" - not the same as "born with," is it?

inuitive - using or based on what one feels to be true without concious reasoning, instinctive.

No, not quite.

[RobinHood3000]

Thought so. Thanks.

[MikeK]

Kate Vannah, an associate of E.A. Robinson, contrasting their writing styles:

"He says it takes him six weeks to write a sonnet. It takes me ten minutes. One of us is crazy."

[Virgil]

Oh, I had forgotten this thread. I love this thread. Here's one:

"A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."
Thomas Mann

[RobinHood3000]

Ooooh, I like that one, Virg - nice find.

[toni]

That's a good one, Uncle Virg! I too. have forgotten this thread...:)

Quotes from Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing


Write with zest, inscribe with vigor, report your hatreds and despairs with a kind of love.



Stay drunk on writing so that reality cannot destroy you.



Quickness is truth and the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are.



If you are writing without zest, without gusto...you are only half a writer.



Not to write, for many of us, is to die..

[toni]

I found some more!


If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing.
~ Kingsley Amis



One of the most feared expressions in modern times is "The computer is down."
~ Norman Augustine



You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If somebody drives it off a cliff, that's it.
~Rita Mae Brown



I don't want to take up literature in a money-making spirit, or be very anxious about making large profits, but selling it at a loss is another thing altogether, and an amusement I cannot well afford.
~ Lewis Carroll



The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.
~ Raymond Chandler



The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
~ Robert Cromier



I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.
~ Peter De Vries



If I were reincarnated, I'd want to come back a buzzard. Nothing hates him or envies him or wants him or needs him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything.
~ William Faulkner



Often I think writing is a sheer paring away of oneself leaving always something thinner, barer, more meager.


You don't write because you want to say something' you write because you've got something to say.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald


They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
~ Lillian Hellman



A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.
~ Ernest Hemingway



Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art.
~ William Ralph Inge



Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ASK questions. If I had answers I'd be a politician.
~ Eugene Ionesco



The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.
~ James Joyce



Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less materials you need
~ Charles F. Kettering



I like to write when I feel spiteful; it's like having a good sneeze.
~ D. H. Lawrence



A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
~ Thomas Mann



When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can sure it but the scratching of a pen.
~ Samuel Lover



Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to those who have none.
~ Jules Renard



The wastepaper basket is the writer's best friend.
~ Isaac B. Singer



What's this business of being a writer. It's just putting one word after another.
~ Irving Thalberg



The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.
~ Mark Twain



There is no royal path to good writing; and such paths as exist do not lead through neat critical gardens, various as they are, but through the jungles of self, the world, and of craft.
~ Jessamyn West

[MikeK]

A few others:


Robert Frost:

- Why poetry is in school more than it seems to be outside in the world, the children haven't been told. They must wonder.

- We write in school chiefly because to try our hand at writing should make us better readers.

- Practise of an art is more salutary than talk about it. There is nothing more composing than composition.

- The eye reader is a barbarian. So also is the writer for the eye reader, who needn't care how badly he writes since he doesn't care how badly he is read.

- And sometimes my objection to it [free verse] is that it's a pose. It's not honest. When a man sets out consciously to tear up forms and rhythms and measures, then he is not interested in giving you poetry. he just wants to perform; he wants to show you his tricks. He will get an effect; nobody will deny that, but it is not a harmonious effect.

- For my pleasure I had as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down.

- I have come to the conclusion that style in prose or verse is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying.

- You've got to refrain from saying the common places of wisdom and reason and damn yourself back till you break out in little bits all your own.

- I had it from one of the youngest lately: "Whereas we once thought literature should be without content, we now know it should be charged full of propaganda." Wrong twice, I told him.

T.E. Hulme:

- Verse is a pedestrian taking you over the ground, prose - a train that delivers you at a destination.

George Orwell:

- It [the English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.

- As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of WORDS chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of PHRASES tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house.

- A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will aks himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is unavoidably ugly?

- What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about. In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them.

- ...he [Whitman] is one of those writers who tell you what you ought to feel instead of making you feel it.

Edgar Allen Poe:

- Nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its denouement before anything be attempted with the pen. It is only with the denouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points, tend to the development of the intention.

[dramasnot6]

i adored the George Orwell ones you posted Mikek! That man was so brilliant.....:D

[MikeK]

i adored the George Orwell ones you posted Mikek! That man was so brilliant.....:D

Exactly. Everyone knows him for his 'political' writing (Animal Farm, 1984, and certain essays), but his insights into writing itself and literature were amazing. His essays on Dickens, Kipling, Chesterton...all extremely insightful.

[toni]

Writing a story is like playing out your dreams while you are awake. It's not about being inspired by your dreams, but conciously manipulating the unconcious and creating your own dream. - Haruki Murakami

[Green_Ghost]

It'd be great if someone could help me disect this quote a little more, and just explain it. I have to write an essay on it with examples from works that we've read in class about realism and naturalism. I think I understand most of it but I'm probably missing something... Thanks.

"[The naturalists] consider that man cannon be seperated from his surroundings, that he is completed by his clothes, his house, his city, and his country; and hence we shall not note a single phenomenon of his brain or heart without looking for the causes or the consequences in his surroundings."
-Emile Zola

[dramasnot6]

I think it's getting at that , according to naturalists,ones identity is shaped by their environment. By "brain or heart" I think it refers to ones behaviour and value and belief system to also be shaped by ones environment. Overall it is trying to state the importance of your personal context and how it defines you.

[toni]

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov

[cziffra]

why hasn't the world produced more shakespeares if "nothing comes from nothing"? the ability to write is as innate a talent as the accuracy and strength of a professional quarterback. sure, cultivation is necessary, but the predisposition for greatness is already there, etched in a person's DNA. a hard pill to swallow for many---shattering the "democratic" ideal that we all start out on an equal footing and progress the same. in his Tempting of America, former supreme court us justice nominee (& genius) Robert Bork called this 'nothing comes from nothing' notion a happy dream from happy dreamers. :D

I've often wondered about this. If it's possible to be born a genius, is it also possible to be born evil? And if so, does it mean the genius doesn't deserve praise and the evil don't deserve punishment?

A dangerous topic, i know, and one i have no conclusions for. I'd like to think we aren't born with such qualities, but when you read a shakespeare or listen to beethoven or try to understand how newton and einstein (etc) could possibly have done what they did (ignoring for the moment a so called person such as stalin and his unbelievable capacity for sadism) it's quite overwhelming. how could these people have done such things without a little divine assistance? or is it all simply learnt?

[Midas]

Most of these quotes here, if not all, and many more, one can find so easily by tapping the keys on any search engine.

Here is one, I regret, you will not find on the internet (yet), except here, where it has been partially quoted in another thread, in another section.


'Writing is merely painting a picture with words. Good writing comes from how the artist chooses and applies his/her colours, communicates what he/she 'sees' and 'feels' to others, and stirs their passion for more'

Who wrote that? Sorry, I am too modest to say. (smile)

[DATo]

"To create is to steal. When a cow eats grass the cow does not become grass, the grass becomes a cow."

- Eric Hoffer