I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten — happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.
– Brenda Ueland
Category: Quotable
Quotable 24
Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.
– Jane Yolen
Quotable 23
The life of the creative man is led, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.
– Saul Steinberg
Quotable 22
Short stories are designed to deliver their impact in as few pages as possible. A tremendous amount is left out, and a good short story writer learns to include only the most essential information.
– Orson Scott Card
Quotable 21
The communication of our thoughts by means of language, whether spoken or written, constitutes a peculiar art, which cannot be acquired in any perfection but by long-continued practice.
– Peter M. Roget
Quotable 20
Trust the process. Acknowledge your doubts and then write anyway.
– Mary Pearson
Quotable 19
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
– Ray Bradbury
Quotable 18
Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.
– Matthew Arnold
Quotable 17
Sometimes students seem shy about writing about people who do the wrong thing — we’re all taught to do the right thing and focus on the right thing. But all of literature is about people who do the wrong thing, despite themselves. What would the story be if they did the right thing? No story at all. Fiction wants to look at all the things that go wrong.
– Chang-rae Lee
Quotable 16
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.
– Hannah Arendt