May 2013
46 posts
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“Don’t overwrite description in a story - you haven’t got time.”
– Elizabeth Spencer
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“I always do the first line well, but I have trouble with the others.”
– Moliere
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“The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be...”
– Aristotle
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“Before you begin to write a sentence, imagine the scene you want to paint with...”
– Othello Bach
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“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that...”
– Ray Bradbury
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“A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however,...”
– Albert Camus
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“The pen is the tongue of the soul; as are the thoughts engendered there, so will...”
– Miguel de Cervantes
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“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”
– Winston Churchill
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“Writing is a difficult, lonely endeavor, and every writer is a perpetual...”
– Isabella Franconati
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“It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait...”
– Robert Frost
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“The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game…is...”
– Carlos Fuentes
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“Nouns and verbs are almost pure metal; adjectives are cheaper ore.”
– Marie Gilchrist
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“The greatest possible mint of style is to make the words absolutely disappear...”
– Nathaniel Hawthorne
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“Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make more clear.”
– Joseph Joubert
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“I can’t write five words but that I change seven.”
– Dorothy Parker
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“If you would be pungent, be brief, for it is with words as with sunbeams - the...”
– Robert Southey
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“Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no...”
– William Strunk Jr.
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“I love writer’s block! I love it for the same reasons I love tree spirits...”
– Paul J. Silvia
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“I know when a story is finished when there is not a single thing more I can...”
– Amy Hempel
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“A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous...”
– Charles Baxter
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“Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody;...”
– Flannery O’Connor
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“Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story....”
– Kurt Vonnegut
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“The main question of a novel is—did it amuse? Were you surprised at dinner...”
– Sydney Smith
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“Restrictions and writing shouldn’t mix. Let your mind be open. Let it be a...”
– Lauren Hammond
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“When you’re socially awkward, you’re isolated more than usual, and...”
– Criss Jami
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“Good writers have two things in common: they would rather be understood than...”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
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“I love writing in longhand. Writing in longhand, I think, is a marvelous thing...”
– Neil Gaiman
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“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.”
– Ray Bradbury
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“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take...”
– Diane Setterfield
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“We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to...”
– John Gardner
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“Writing sessions can last an hour or sixteen hours, depending on how it’s...”
– Orson Scott Card
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“Science fiction encourages us to explore … all the futures, good and bad,...”
– Marion Zimmer Bradley
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“Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers...”
– Alain de Botton
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“The last time somebody said, ‘I find I can write much better with a word...”
– Roy Blount Jr.
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“Writers let themselves be enticed by the language.”
– Peter Bichsel
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“The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty...”
– Simone de Beauvoir
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“You have to have something worth saying and then the ability to say it -...”
– Iain Banks
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“Be regular and orderly in your life, that you may be violent and original in...”
– Clive Barker
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“I always had this non-stop drive. I had to keep sending stories out and every...”
– Kevin J. Anderson
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“Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.”
– Dorothy Allison
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“Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.”
– Maya Angelou
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“A story needs rhythm. Read it aloud to yourself. If it doesn’t spin a bit...”
– Esther Freud
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“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why...”
– David McCullough
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“In poetry, you must love the words, the ideas and the images and rhythms with...”
– Wallace Stevens
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“I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more...”
– Tom Stoppard
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“This is for writers yet to be published who think the uphill climb will never...”
– Terry Brooks
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“Stay loose and flexible, and keep your expectations very low.”
– Chris Baty
April 2013
60 posts
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“Your story might be firing on one cylinder, when really, it needs to fire on...”
– Chuck Wendig
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“Something amazing happens when the rest of the world is sleeping. I am glued to...”
– Anne Fadiman
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“The advice I continually give to young writers is this, “Learn to paint...”
– Brian Jacques 