Quotes about writ
writing people doubt
To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant—inexcusably ignorant, in a world where three out of four people have learned to read and write. Daniel Dennett
writing play waiting-around
It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right script to come along, I decided to write one myself Dan Castellaneta
writing process novel
For me, the process of writing a novel happens mostly in your head before you actually start writing. Dan Chaon
writing knowing worry
I always worry that knowing too much about a novel or a story early on in writing will close it down - it feels fatalistic in some way.
writing world pages
The danger in writing about a world you don't know very well is that you can get lost in it, and sometimes I'll end up with a hundred pages I don't know what to do with.
writing stories daydreaming
That's how I work, whether with stories or novels - they start with an image that comes to me in a daydream, and a lot of times I'm walking around with these pictures in my head for awhile before I start writing.
writing people trying
A lot of people work really diligently to maintain a "profile" in the writing world, but that's so hard, and so boring most of the time. So you just keep doing what you like to do, I guess, and try to enjoy it.
writing self people
I know a lot of people don't listen to music when they're writing because it distracts them, but for me it's almost a way to get into the self-hypnotic state that I need to be in to write.
writing effort sometimes
There's a lot of effort expended once you begin to completely trash your life. Sometimes, writing feels like this to me.
writing drunk people
I never could figure out how those people like Bukowski could be both carousers and writers at the same time, because to me writing takes as much destructive energy as it takes to be a really good professional drunk.
writing order aspect
I tend to like order in almost every other aspect of my life, but for me, the process of writing is really chaotic and decadent and indulgent.
writing news-stories people
People write fiction in their minds all the time - every time we read a 'human interest' news story, or a true crime tale, we find ourselves fascinated because we're trying to understand why people behave the way they do, why they make the choices they do, how we become who we become.
writing horror-stories ghost-stories
I wanted to write a horror story. But in some ways, I have always thought of myself as a kind of ghost-story/horror writer, though most of the time the supernatural never actually appears on stage.
writing dark light
Writing a short story is a little like walking into a dark room, finding a light and turning it on. The light is the end of the story.
writing scary sexuality
Writing about women's sexuality is very scary for me because I'm always afraid I'll get it wrong.
writing years punishment
For the last few years I've tried to force myself to write at least one page every day, which doesn't sound like much but it's actually pretty hard to manage. Because I'm not allowed to do a make-up day. I can't do two pages the next day. The punishment for not completing my page is that I have to eat a vegetarian meal the next day.
writing materials
I write slowly. I actually write quickly, but I throw out so much material. Dan Brown
writing essence water
Writing an informative yet compact thriller is a lot like making maple sugar candy. You have to tap hundreds of trees - boil vats and vats of raw sap - evaporate the water - and keep boiling until you've distilled a tiny nugget that encapsulates the essence.
writing scene late
Get into the scene late; get out of the scene early. David Mamet
writing past self
Writing a novel is an incredibly free experience. One puts one's self in a narrative mode. You can go off in any direction - the past, the future, or go laterally, or include one's own beliefs. It's total freedom.
writing thinking play
It's hard to write a good play because it's hard to structure a plot. If you can think of it off the top of your head, so can the audience.
writing pieces bleeding
It looks like you can write a minimalist piece without much bleeding. And you can. But not a good one. David Foster
writing speech events
Events don't happen because I write a speech. I am allowed to write a speech because events are going to happen. David Frum
writing fifty stories
No one can call themselves a writer until he or she has written at least fifty stories. David Foster Wallace
writing vanity fiction
You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing- your vanity is at stake. You discover a tricky thing about fiction writing; a certain amount of vanity is necessary to be able to do it all, but any vanity above that certain amount is lethal.
writing want way
God, what a ghastly enterprise to be in, though-and what an odd way to achieve success. I'm an exhibitionist who wants to hide, but is unsuccessful at hiding; therefore, somehow I succeed.
writing trying different
When I say or write something, there are actually a whole lot of different things I am communicating. The propositional content (i.e., the verbal information I'm trying to convey) is only one part of it. Another part is stuff about me, the communicator. Everyone knows this. It's a function of the fact there are so many different well-formed ways to say the same basic thing, from e.g. "I was attacked by a bear!" to "Goddamn bear tried to kill me!" to "That ursine juggernaut did essay to sup upon my person!" and so on.
writing innocent sentences
There are very few innocent sentences in writing.
writing artist years
Postmodern irony and cynicism's become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what's wrong, because they'll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony's gone from liberating to enslaving. ... The postmodern founders' patricidal work was great, but patricide produces orphans, and no amount of revelry can make up for the fact that writers my age have been literary orphans throughout our formative years.
writing would-be fiction
Of course, the fact that Dostoevsky can tell a juicy story isn't enough to make him great. If it were, Judith Krantz and John Grisham would be great fiction writers, and by any but the most commercial standards they're not even very good.
writing character thinking
This story ["The Depressed Person"] was the most painful thing I ever wrote. It's about narcissism, which is a part of depression. The character has traits of myself. I really lost friends while writing on that story, I became ugly and unhappy and just yelled at people. The cruel thing with depression is that it's such a self-centered illness - Dostoevsky shows that pretty good in his "Notes from Underground". The depression is painful, you're sapped/consumed by yourself; the worse the depression, the more you just think about yourself and the stranger and repellent you appear to others.
writing eight worry
I will probably write an hour a day and spend eight hours a day biting my knuckle and worrying about not writing.
writing fiction down-and
Writing fiction takes me out of time. I sit down and the clock will not exist for me for a few hours. That’s probably as close to immortal as we’ll ever get.