Quotes about writ
writing people intellectual
I'm not one of the people who has a kind of scholarly hat and writes in a certain way for an academic audience and then puts on a public intellectual hat and writes a different way for a different kind of readership. I generally write the way I write, no matter what and it seems to have worked for me. Louis Menand
writing people kind
If you write for the New Yorker, you always get people critiquing your grammar, you can count on it. So, because a lot of New Yorker readers are kind of, you know, amateur grammarians and so you do get a lot of that. Louis Menand
writing oddities ideas
One of the oddities about responses that you get to what you write, if you get a fair number of them, is that people have very different ideas of what you said. Louis Menand
writing sound timing
Writers are not mere copyists of language; they are polishers, embellishers, perfecters. They spend hours getting the timing right so that what they write sounds completely unrehearsed. Louis Menand
writing thinking discipline
For the kind of places I've written for and the kind of writing that I've done, the general way to think about your audience is to think about somebody who's like yourself, but in a completely different discipline. Louis Menand
writing editors decision
When I write a novel, every word is mine. I welcome suggestions from my editor, but in the end, I make all the final decisions. Louis Sachar
writing texas holes
I guess what led to me writing 'Holes' was having moved to Texas in 1991, and it was sort of my reaction to Texas. Louis Sachar
writing character thinking
Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result. Louis Sachar
writing may speech
Never write down your speeches beforehand; if you do, you may perhaps be a good declaimer, but will never be a debater. Lord Chesterfield
writing men giving
Next to doing things that deserve to be written, nothing gets a man more credit, or gives him more pleasure than to write things that deserve to be read. Lord Chesterfield
writing history advice
Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't. Lord Acton
writing math college
The basic skills of math, English and writing are not enough, ... You must develop a basic system of values to form and guide the use of these skills. The true test will not be what you learned in college, but how you used what you learned. Jim Rogers
writing past masters
General rules have been legislated into being by past masters. John Ciardi
writing mean men
If a man means his writing seriously, he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what he has written badly. His progress toward good writing and his recognition of bad writing are bound to unfold at something like the same rate. John Ciardi
writing men talking
I live here among the ignorant like a lost man in fact like one whom the rest seemes careless of having anything to do with—they hardly dare talk in my company for fear I should mention them in my writings and I find more pleasure in wandering the fields than in musing among my silent neighbours who are insensible to everything but toiling and talking of it and that to no purpose. John Clare
writing views innovation
Science fiction offers an intensely bracing angle of view for writers to adopt, especially in a time of constant innovation and crisis, and it is a scandal that in 1999 so many writers have written it and continue to write it in obscurity. John Clute
writing giving actors
On movies, I like to involve the cast in the writing of the script. I like to have a rehearsal period, after which I do the last draft, which gives me a chance to incorporate anything the actors have come up with during the rehearsal period, so I'm very inclusive as a writer. John Cleese
writing perfect want
I have a tendency sometimes to get too logical with what I'm writing, just because I want it to be kind of perfect. John Cleese
writing thinking skills
Writing is the great skill, the creative skill. The acting is more an interpretative skill. And the thrill for me is the moment when I think of something. And then the challenge is how to get that funny idea to work in terms of the structure and that kind of thing, which is - and that's what I really love doing. John Cleese
writing past wells
Why write about the past? Well, there's more of it. John Cleese
writing mind actors
I tend to have an odd split in my mind: I tend to look at it as a writer and when the writing thing is OK and I'm happy with it, then I put on my actor's hat. John Cleese
writing circles important
The writing is the most important bit, and performing it is just closing the circle because I'm less likely to screw it up than anyone else. John Cleese
writing actors performers
I've always called myself a writer/performer, not an actor because I basically write what I perform. John Cleese
writing laughing people
Tension is wonderful for making people laugh. John Cleese
writing reality people
Naturally, people's image is of a performer, but the reality of it is the writing for me has always been the most important thing and the most rewarding thing. John Cleese
writing creativity way
Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating. John Cleese
writing thinking years
I don't think about the reader in any conscious way that impacts the writing, as far as, Hey, most readers would like this! But at the same time, if it were presented to me: "John, you're going to write a novel. It's going to take you a few years. When you're done with it, there's a law that no one's allowed to read it." I don't think I would write it. I want someone to read it!
writing people happens
I know people who are really talented at writing, and they just don't ever make it happen because they're also good at other things.
writing years class
The first time I took a fiction writing class was sophomore year. And I just found myself taking that extremely seriously, in a way that I didn't take anything else seriously. So I guess that was the start of it.
writing limits
One extends one's limits only by exceeding them. M. Scott Peck
writing opportunity world
I wanted to write about the third world and had the opportunity to go live in the trenches, so to speak. Lurlene McDaniel
writing people trying
I look at people like Picasso and Da Vinci and Escher and Miles Davis, and they'll write or paint that one definitive masterpiece of maybe 50 that they have that's really trying to go outside the box, trying to do something that's tough. And then when you accomplish it, you look back and go, 'Yeeaaaah - masterpiece.' Lupe Fiasco
writing long rejection
I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long. Louise Brown