Quotes about writing
writing winter thinking
Autobiographical writings, essays, interviews, various other things... All the non-fiction prose I wanted to keep, that was the idea behind this collected volume, which came out about few years ago. I didn't think of Winter Journal, for example, as an autobiography, or a memoir. What it is is a literary work, composed of autobiographical fragments, but trying to attain, I hope, the effect of music. Paul Auster
writing thinking typewriters
I don't even own a computer. I write by hand then I type it up on an old manual typewriter. But I cross out a lot - I'm not writing in stone tablets, it's just ink on paper. I don't feel comfortable without a pen or a pencil in my hand. I can't think with my fingers on the keyboard. Words are generated for me by gripping the pen, and pressing the point on the paper.
writing goal understanding
I sometimes feel that my goal as a novelist would be to write a novel in which the language was so transparent that the reader would forget that language was the medium of understanding. Of course that's not possible, but it's some sort of idealized goal.
writing two typical
There are two kinds of typical days. There's the typical day when I'm writing a novel, and there's the typical day when I'm not.
writing order found
I've found that writing novels is an all-absorbing experience - both physical and mental - and I have to do it every day in order to keep the rhythm, to keep myself focused on what I'm doing.
writing world novelists
Nobody asks you to do this. The world out there is not panting after another novelist. We choose it.
writing age faces
The ideal reader's the same, and I suppose this person has never had a face or a gender or an age. It's just some kind of unknown other who will be sympathetic and read each word carefully and understand what I'm writing about. I suppose every writer feels this.
writing exercise opening-up
Writing is, after all, a gesture towards other people, giving something to others. And so it's not a completely hermetic exercise. It's really an opening up.
writing done facts
In fact, writing, especially writing autobiographical works, and this is actually the fourth time I've done it, each time I've done it I've felt deeply immersed in the material as I'm doing it, and then it's over and everything is the same.
writing next-day waiting
I write the paragraph, then I'm crossing out, changing words, trying to improve it. When it seems more or less OK, then I type it up because sometimes it's almost illegible, and if I wait, I might not be able to read it the next day.
writing giving people
I don't read reviews any more, but I'm told by my publisher who gives me an account of what people have been writing and it's been a very split kind of response.
writing breathing goes-on
Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn't write, I would stop breathing.
writing two world
Every novel is an equal collaboration between the writer and the reader and it is the only place in the world where two strangers can meet on terms of absolute intimacy.
writing hands tools
I feel that the act of writing, in and of itself, is a tool towards probing that which you wouldn't without that pen in your hand. It's a strange, almost neurological phenomenon, and the words seem to generate more words - but only when you're writing. You can't do it in your head.
writing quality tactile
Writing has always had a tactile quality for me. It's a physical experience.
writing firsts doe
Writing is such a strange, utterly mysterious process. First, there was nothing; then, suddenly, there was something. I don't know where thoughts are born. Where the hell does it come from? I don't know. I really don't know.
writing answers compulsion
I don't know why I write. If I knew the answer, I probably wouldn't have to. But it is a compulsion. You don't choose it, it chooses you. And I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.
writing kind certain
I never feel I'm standing on solid ground, and I do write with a certain kind of trembling fear.
writing solitary
Writing is a solitary business. It takes over your life. In some sense, a writer has no life of his own. Even when he’s there, he’s not really there.
writing impulse writing-life
All through my writing life, I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.
writing trying fiction
The kind of fiction I'm trying to write is about telling the truth.
writing body sometimes
Writing begins in the body, it is the music of the body, and even if the words have meaning, can sometimes have meaning, the music of the words is where the meanings begin....Writing as a lesser form of dance.
writing play skills
So I find the fascination, the love, the incredible skill and everything to do with acting, writing plays, and doing them, just darling. Lovely. I love actors. Patrick Macnee
writing years lucky
Well, you just know, as a writer, I didn't really write one of the five best screenplays of the year. There were lots of brilliant screenplays; I was just one of the lucky ones who got nominated. Patrick Marber
writing simple
Writing has never been that simple for me. Pat Conroy
writing hands long
I still write in long hand. I type like a chimpanzee.
writing thinking form
Good writing is the hardest form of thinking.
writing light interesting
You do not learn how to write novels in a writing program. You learn how by leading an interesting life. Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves.
writing way my-own-life
Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.
writing agony uniforms
Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.
writing voice relief
I prayed hard and only gradually became aware that this fierce praying was a way of finding prologue and entrance into my own writing. This came as both astonishment and relief. When I thought God had abandoned me, I discovered that He had simply given me a different voice to praise the inexhaustible beauty of the made world.
writing thinking people
I have always wanted to write in such a way that will make people think, Why, I've always thought that but never found the words for it. Pamela Hansford Johnson
writing objectivity perfect
Perfect objectivity is always impossible, no matter who writes a person's biography. Pamela Stephenson