A young writer is easily tempted by the allusive and ethereal and ironic and reflective, but the declarative is at the bottom of most good writing.
– Garrison Keillor
Tag: Quotable
Quotable 95
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
– Jessamyn West
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