Share and Discuss Writing Quotes!

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.


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.

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Originally Posted by toni

Music and math can be intuited-but writing cannot.

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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. ;)

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Creative writing is a breath of intuition caught on paper.

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: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.

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.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

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. ;)

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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

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: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.

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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

"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....

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Originally Posted by 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....

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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.

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Originally Posted by toni

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.

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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.

"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).

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:

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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

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

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

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Originally Posted by dramasnot6

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.

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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:

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

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: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..

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Originally Posted by dramasnot6

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

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Love that one, drame...:thumbs_up

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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

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

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Originally Posted by 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

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

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

oh, are you writing a new story robin?

Here's a good one:

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

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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...