Resist the urge to do housework, says Pat Barker. QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Keep your bum glued to the chair. It’s extraordinary how, if a piece of writing is going badly—and sometimes even when it’s going well—other activities become steadily more attractive. Not … Continue reading
“…you can almost always make something better by making it shorter…” Keith Gessen QUOTES FOR WRITERS
I once heard George Saunders tell a story about being edited at the New Yorker, where his editor kept asking him to cut a highly precise number of lines—18 lines, … Continue reading
Why life and reading begin after the age of 40 – W.H.Auden QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our … Continue reading
Why writers get blocked (sometimes) – Annie Dillard QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
When you are stuck in a book; when you are well into writing it, and know what comes next, and yet cannot go on; when every morning for a week … Continue reading
What you can do to books – Matt Haig QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
It is okay to dog ear pages. It is okay to draw in books. Doodles. Margin notes. Highlights. Books are to be interacted with, argued with, marked, loved. A book … Continue reading
How ideas grow into a novel – David Whitehouse QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
…my books have been collisions of the ideas I’ve had which have stood the test of time. By which I mean I remember them a long time after I’ve had … Continue reading
They’re all worth reading – Stephen King QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Every book you pick up has its own lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones. Stephen King
A writer needs more than talent to suceed – Julie-Ann Corrigan QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
‘It takes ten years or 10,000 hours to write well.’ This is a truism. More than talent, a writer needs patience, hefty skin, and discipline. With these, you will be … Continue reading
The advantage of being an older writer – Susan Hill QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Getting old has advantages as well as disadvantages. it may mean that you are freed from obligations – work, bringing up children, looking after older relatives – that left you … Continue reading
The difference between poetry and songwriting – Patti Smith QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
When I’m sitting down to write a poem I’m not thinking of anyone. I’m not thinking about how it will be received. I’m not thinking it will make people happy … Continue reading
Authors really only like one kind of character – Terry Pratchett QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
For an author, the nice characters aren’t much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing … Continue reading
We will never get unlimited time to write – Julia Cameron QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
We have a notion that we want to have vast stretches of unlimited time to write – and we never get them. We need to learn to write in the … Continue reading
Leo Tolstoy on light and shadow QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow. Leo Tolstoy
The trouble with using long words…Stephen King QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, working for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of … Continue reading
