Quotes about writing
writing winning agony
It is in the hard rockpile labour of seeking to win, hold, or deserve a reader's interest that the pleasant agony of writing comes in.
writing mirrors vanity
The purpose of writing is to hold a mirror to nature, but too much today is written from small mirrors in vanity cases.
writing emotional might
I need some kind of emotional stake in it to write my lyrics, assuming that place. It might just be an emotion I understand but am not currently experiencing necessarily. John Mayer
writing autumn fortune
In this autumn of 1919, in which I write, we are at the dead season of our fortunes. John Maynard Keynes
writing wind glory
Economists must leave to Adam Smith alone the glory of the Quarto, must pluck the day, fling pamphlets into the wind, write always sub specie temporis , and achieve immortality by accident, if at all. John Maynard Keynes
writing
Observe, don't imitate. John M. Ford
writing different-universes next
At one point I intended to write precursor and sequel novels, about the establishment of the Web and its next evolution, but I am very unlikely to now; they would take place in a different universe. John M. Ford
writing ideas want
There are readers who want every point to be clearly and unambiguously set forth, and there are those who want to pry ideas and meanings out for themselves. John M. Ford
writing long memoir
I'm not about to write my memoirs. Not for a long time. John Major
writing shooting want
Some directors expect you to do everything; write, be producer, psychiatrist. Some just want you to die in a tragic accident during the shooting so they can get the insurance. John Malkovich
writing two everyday
Our everyday language has become encumbered, Germanic, artificial, bureaucratic, inorganic. It may not be exaggerated to say that by now American writers face but two alternatives: write English, or write gobbledygook. John Lukacs
writing people competition
If you ever want to know why I'm not on a record label, look at 'The X Factor!' Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions. John Lydon
writing self laziness
Periods of inactivity, I don't know such things. I'm consistently writing. My life is busy. It always is. There are hardly any moments for self-indulgent laziness. John Lydon
writing imperfection difficult
So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with. John Locke
writing ideas people
I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last. Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me the music tells me what to talk about. John Legend
writing names together
Paul (McCartney) and I made a deal when we were 15. There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what. John Lennon
writing kids artist
All kids draw and write poetry and everything, and some of us last until we're about eighteen, but most drop off at about twelve when some guy comes up and says, 'You're no good.' That's all we get told all our lives. 'You haven't got the ability. You're a cobbler.' It happened to all of us, but if somebody had told me all my life, 'Yeah, you're a great artist,' I would have been a more secure person. John Lennon
writing thinking years
We've learned over the years that if we wanted we could write anything that just felt good or sounded good and it didn't necessarily have to have any particular meaning to us. As odd as it seemed to us, reviewers would take it upon themselves to interject their own meanings on our lyrics. Sometimes we sit and read other people's interpretations of our lyrics and think, 'Hey, that's pretty good.' If we liked it, we would keep our mouths shut and just accept the credit as if it was what we meant all along. John Lennon
writing mountain impossible
There is no such thing as a secure writer: every novel is an impossible mountain. John le Carre
writing hands literature
I happen to write by hand. I don't even type. John le Carre
writing thinking hands
Without a pen in my hand I can't think. John le Carre
writing principles stories
It's a principle of mine to come into the story as late as possible, and to tell it as fast as you can. John le Carre
writing spy desperate
I was the British spy who had come out of the woodwork and told it how it really was, and anything I said to the contrary only enforced the myth. And since I was writing for a public hooked on Bond and desperate for the antidote, the myth stuck. John le Carre
writing work-out imagination
Novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion. They make their own movie when they write: they're casting, they're dressing the scene, they're working out where the energy of the scene is coming from and they're also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader. John le Carre
writing two pages
When it's going well [writing] goes terribly fast. It isn't at all surprising to write a chapter in a day, which for me is about twenty-two pages. When it's going badly, it isn't really going badly; it's just the beginning. John le Carre
writing dust pie
Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie. John le Carre
writing cat stories
The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story. John le Carre
writing today old-movie
In old movies, the cinematography is a thousand times better than anything today. Writing, a thousand times better. John Kricfalusi
writing thinking
Writing helped me understand what I was thinking about. John Baldessari
writing years knowing
A curious thing about written literature: It is about four thousand years old, but we have no way of knowing whether four thousand years constitutes senility or the maiden blush of youth. John Barth
writing kind produce
Those rituals of getting ready to write produce a kind of trance state. John Barth
writing plot
A plot begins when somebody has something to hide. John Banville
writing light manhattan
I live in Dublin, God knows why. There are greatly more congenial places I could have settled in - Italy, France, Manhattan - but I like the climate here, and Irish light seems to be essential for me and for my writing. John Banville