Writing Quotes

Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.

My mother bought a piano, put it in the front room, and I just started writing my songs.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

When I started writing this, I found that I simply couldn't take fantasy seriously, so it became humorous, and continued from there.

Writing is total grunt work. A lot of people think it's all about sitting and waiting for the muse. I don't buy that. It's a job. There are days when I really want to write, days when I don't. Every day I sit down and write.

What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.

Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

I don't think Capote loved Smith. But he did make a deep connection. It upset some people, because that had never been the approach to journalistic crime writing, to look into the mind of the killer.

These matters having been arranged, I had a temporary awning erected near the river, and was for three or four days busily employed writing an account of our journey for the Governor's information.

I was in lots of dodgy bands growing up and I always fancied myself in a band. But, you know, I was rubbish at writing music. So maybe one day I'll play a rock star, or punk rocker.

I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.

It is like writing history with lightning and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.

Right now, I'm Writing song lyrics. Experimenting with a play. Toying with an idea for a documentary. I hope one of these will eventually be launched into the light of day.

Every writer I know has trouble writing.

Fantastic writing in English is kind of disreputable, but fantastic writing in translation is the summit.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.

I didn't necessarily have a total idea when I was writing the movie of where everything was going. I just wanted to have really realistic dialogue and write like people I knew talked. I tried to keep it very real.

I've been writing about my boyhood, when I was a little kid back on my grandfather's farm where we didn't know about black widow spiders or all that stuff. But writing about that is so easy.

When I'm writing, I'm trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that's how life is lived, you know?

I was totally absorbed in the real world, the politics, the history, the news, and I just couldn't find my way into the fictional world... When I finally could return to writing the novel, it was in fits and starts.

I'm pretty grounded on my own passion - writing books, you know, doing programs, speaking around the country. And I love what I do.

Writers know that sometimes things are there in the drawer for decades before they finally come out and you are capable of writing about them.

Lyrics are so important, I hate every second of writing them, but it's something I take great pride in when it's finished.

Yes, I am aware that I have become a caricature. I've thought about this. Conceptually, what I'd like to do is the equivalent of writing myself out of the script.

I am 82 years old. I imagine that I will keep on writing as long as anyone wants to keep reading.

I know I stand visibly onstage, but my function is still unseen, because I rarely see the immediate results of what I am saying or doing or writing.

For me, writing is a love-hate relationship.

Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.