Quotes about writ
writing independent light
Consultation and compliance can conduce little to the perfection of any literary performance; for whoever is so doubtful of his own abilities as to encourage the remarks of others, will find himself every day embarrassed with new difficulties, and will harass his mind, in vain, with the hopeless labour of uniting heterogeneous ideas, digesting independent hints, and collecting into one point the several rays of borrowed light, emitted often with contrary directions. Samuel Johnson
writing character successful
A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard of the public is not to be kept but by tribute, and the remembrance of past service will quickly languish unless successive performances frequently revive it. Yet in every new attempt there is new hazard, and there are few who do not, at some unlucky time, injure their own characters by attempting to enlarge them.
writing men easier
It is much easier not to write like a man than to write like a woman.
writing ideas perfection
It is the condition of our present state to see more than we can attain; the exactest vigilance and caution can never maintain a single day of unmingled innocence... It is, however, necessary for the idea of perfection to be proposed, that we may have some object to which our endeavours are to be directed; and he that is most deficient in the duties of life makes some atonement for his faults if he warns others against his own failings, and hinders, by the salubrity of his admonitions, the contagion of his example.
writing men design
It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering into refined speculations, it may be shown much easier to design than to perform. A man proposes his schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear.
writing curiosity mind
Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.
writing men mind
I advised Chambers, and would advise every young man beginning to compose, to do it as fast as he can, to get a habit of having his mind to start promptly; it is so much more difficult to improve in speed than in accuracy.
writing order wells
Nay, Sir, those who write in them, write well, in order to be paid well.
writing style poet
A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn.
writing men world
As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment, the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.
writing thinking parent
I found that life intruding on writing was, in fact, life. And that, tempting as it may be for a writer who is a parent, one must not think of life as an intrusion. At the end of the day, writing has very little to do with writing, and much to do with life. And life, by definition, is not an intrusion. Sarah Ruhl
writing theatre amazing-places
A multivalent culture is an amazing place to be writing theatre.
writing thinking play
I think theatre is a democratic act and I think writing a play is not a democratic act. I think we should give writers more leeway and space to write the thing they want to write, and then we should produce the play, multiple times, and let them re-write it.
writing trying way
Write it as it is, don't try to make it like this or that. You can't do it in anybody else's way-you will have to make a way of your own. Sarah Orne Jewett
writing world quiet
You must find your own quiet center of life, and write from that to the world.
writing needs doe
A poem need not have a meaning and like most things in nature often does not have. Wallace Stevens
writing night doors
...after a night spent writing poetry, one is almost happy to hear the milkman at the door.
writing fate race
The whole race is a poet that writes down / The eccentric propositions of its fate.
writing men poetry
A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman.
writing two historical
I find historical figures in general very tricky because you feel at times that you're serving two masters. Not only the arc and wonderful writing that comes with the show, but also the history of a person's life. Vincent Piazza
writing accomplishment novelists
The higher processes are all processes of simplification. The novelist must learn to write, and then he must unlearn it; just as the modern painter learns to draw, and then learns when utterly to disregard his accomplishment, when to subordinate it to a higher and truer effect. Willa Cather
writing years perfect
If you don't keep and guard and mature your force, and above all, have time and quiet to perfect your work, you will be writing things not much better than you did five years ago.
writing creative mind
Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who have flourished their allotted time; otherwise, the creative powers of genius would overstock the world, and the mind would be completely bewildered in the endless mazes of literature. Washington Irving
writing heart may
Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.
writing stories materials
I consider a story merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials.
writing elements want
Everything that you read is an influence on everything you write, and you want to draw as many elements into your work as you can. Walter Jon Williams
writing college courses
I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses.
writing reason
I now have to find a reason to write, every single day.
writing character world
Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part.
writing thinking slow-motion
Writing is thinking in slow motion. Walter Kaufmann
writing years games
realized that at a level I'd never been conscious we'd been engaged in a game of wits for years. I suppose most writer-subject pairings are like that. Of course, I'd set aside my plan to write about him [Clark Rockfeller] as soon as I'd gotten to know him some, but now I'd resumed that intention. Walter Kirn
writing dollars
I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing. Walter Lord
writing men thinking
I generalized rashly: That is what kills political writing, this absurd pretence that you are delivering a great utterance. You never do. You are just a puzzled man making notes about what you think. You are not building the Pantheon, then why act like a graven image? You are drawing sketches in the sand which the sea will wash away. Walter Lippmann