A Hodgepodge of Writing Quotes

 

The TV game show Jeopardy is known for its skill in finding synonyms for the word “miscellaneous” when creating categories with unrelated material. I’m not as good at it, but I try nonetheless, so I am calling this a hodgepodge of writing quotes. It includes a little bit of everything about being a writer.

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“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” Stephen King, On Writing (2000)

“Writing is one-third imagination, one-third experience, and one-third observation.” William Faulkner

“If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea, Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.” Louis L’ Amour

“It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all.” Will Shetterly

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E.L. Doctorow

“Don’t say it was ‘delightful’; make us say ‘delightful’ when we read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers ‘Please will you do my job for me?’” C.S. Lewis

“The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the ‘lightning bug’ and the ‘lightning.’” Mark Twain

“Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.” William Zinsser, On Writing Well (2001)

“There are no rules in writing. There are useful principles. Throw them away when they’re not useful. But always know what you’re throwing away.” Will Shetterly

“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English—it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable.” Mark Twain in a Letter to D.W. Bowser, 3/20/1880

“Broadly speaking, short words are best, and the old words, when short, are best of all.” Winston Churchill

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” E.L. Doctorow

“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” Alfred Hitchcock

“The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.” Tom Clancy

“There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” Justice Brandeis

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I’ll finish up with this quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending."

Writing is An Addiction

 

We’re having some work done on our condo and it will be a hectic week, so I’m taking the easy way out and populating today’s blog post with quotes about being a writer.

Why We Write

“I write for the same reason I breathe—because if I didn’t, I would die.” Isaac Asimov

“We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.” Somerset Maugham

“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can’t help it.” Leo Rosten

“If you can see yourself surviving the rest of your life without writing, then don’t try writing. It’s a passion. It’s something that pushes you, that thrills you.” Stephen Bly

“You might be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.” Stephen Leigh

“Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

It’s Not an Easy Job

“Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you—as if you haven’t been told a million times already—that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.” Harlan Ellison

“I would never encourage anyone to be a writer. It’s too hard.” Eudora Welty

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades (1947)

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Stay tune next week for quotes on other problems writers face.

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The image at the top of this post is an illustration created by Frank Merrill for a 19^th century printing of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It is in the public domain because of its age.

A Hard Job

 

Good writing is like climbing a mountain. It takes time and hard work as well as skill.

As I’ve mentioned before, my current novel is written in the form of weekly newspaper columns. At one point I have my protagonist tell her readers, “I can imagine what you are thinking. How can it take two days to write a 1,000-word column?” My online critique partner’s response was, “I never thought that.”

Of course she hadn’t, because she’s a writer, too, but many people do. And I’m not the only writer who feels that way.

Here are a few quotes about how writers are treated by the uninitiated.

It has always seemed to me that if you have a hope of making a living as an artist – writer, musician, whatever – you absolutely must learn to tell people to leave you alone, and to mean it, and to eject them from your life if they don’t respect that. This is necessary not because your job is more important than anyone else’s – it isn’t – but because a great many people will think of you as not having a job. [Poppy Z. Brite]

 

A successful businesswoman had the temerity to ask me about my royalties, just at the time when my books were at last making reasonable earnings. When told, she was duly impressed, and remarked, “And to think that most people would have had to work so hard for that.” [Madeline L’Engle, Walking on Water (1980), ch. 7]

 

A young friend of mine was asked what she did, and when she replied she was a poet, the inquirer responded, amused, “Oh, I didn’t mean your hobby.” [Madeline L’Engle, Walking on Water (1980), ch. 7]

And here is how writers respond:

Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. [George Orwell, Why I Write, 1947]

 

Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you – as if you haven’t been told a million times already – that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching. [Harlan Ellison]

 

I would never encourage anyone to be a writer. It’s too hard. [Eudora Welty]

 

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. [Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, 1947]

 

Sure, it’s simple writing for kids . . . Just as simple as bringing them up. [Ursula K. LeGuin]

 I’ll end there because I need to return to my mountain climbing.