Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
– Jessamyn West
Category: Quotable
Quotable 94
I’ll give you the sole secret of short-story writing, and here it is: Rule 1. Write stories that please yourself. There is no rule 2. … If you can’t write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public.
– O. Henry
Quotable 93
I think I can honestly say that I wrote these yarns for fun. It happens that I like to fool around with ideas like some people do with drill-presses or vegetable gardens or blondes. It’s a hobby.
– Will F. Jenkins
Quotable 92
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
– Edwin Schlossberg
Quotable 91
There are so many different kinds of writing and so many ways to work that the only rule is this: do what works. Almost everything has been tried and found to succeed for somebody. The methods, even the ideas, of successful writers contradict each other in a most heartening way, and the only element I find common to all successful writers is persistence – an overwhelming determination to succeed.
– Sophy Burnham
Quotable 90
I don’t care who you are. When you sit down to write the first page of your screenplay, in your head, you’re also writing your Oscar acceptance speech.
– Nora Ephron
Quotable 89
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts.
– Rita Mae Brown
Quotable 88
Every writer I know has trouble writing.
– Joseph Heller
Quotable 87
I now think of writing as a privilege – as a gift that’s been given to me. Any day that I don’t get to write something – anything – is a day I have to spend being someone other than who I am.
– Larry Gelbart
Quotable 86
If you do creative work, there’s a sense that inspiration is this fairy dust that gets dropped on you, when in fact you can just manufacture inspiration through sheer brute force. You can simply produce enough material that the thing will arrive that seems inspired.
– Ira Glass