The hard part of writing isn’t the writing; it’s the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?
– William Zinsser
Tag: hard
Quotable 444
The act of a pro is to make it look easy. Fred Astaire doesn’t grunt when he dances to let you know how hard it is. If you’re good at it, you leave no fingerprints.
– Lillian Ross
Quotable 430
To write you have to have stories you want to tell, you have to keep your mind alive, and you have to work hard.
– Tracy Kidder
Quotable 426
When you’re working very hard you’re not lonely; you are the whole damn world.
– Shelby Foote
Quotable 406
An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.
– Charles Bukowski
haiku 521
quiet night –
hard squeal of brakes
thud
Quotable 378
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.
– David McCullough
Quotable 361
Read like mad. But try to do it analytically – which can be hard, because the better and more compelling a novel is, the less conscious you will be of its devices. It’s worth trying to figure those devices out, however: they might come in useful in your own work.
– Sarah Waters
Quotable 345
It is hard enough to write books and stories without having to explain them as well.
– Ernest Hemingway