Philosophy

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Quotes about Writing


Writing describes a range of activities, like farming. Plowing virgin fields—writing—demands freshness.-David Mitchell
 
The most obvious attraction of quotation is that it gives you a little vacation from writing—the other person is doing the work. All you have to do is type. But there is a reason beyond sloth for my liking of quotation at length. It permits you to show the thing itself rather than the pale, and never quite right, simulacrum that paraphrase is.
—Janet Malcom, The Art of Nonfiction No. 4

 



Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one's courage.

- Anais Nin


 
Truth is the most important thing that there is, and if you lose sight of it, your writing will be destroyed in the end. 
- William Trevor


 
A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error – EB White



Imagine every day to be the last of a life surrounded with hopes, cares, anger, and fear. The hours that come unexpectedly will be so much more the grateful.
- Horace
 I’ve always liked the uniform of a poet. I’ve gone through some nice pajamas - Kay Ryan
 
Even more than appearing clever, the writer had wanted to be profound.-The - Epigraph



 
On LSD: The thing is, it's information—extraordinary and deeply relieving information.-Robert Creeley



 An electrical impulse zings out ricochets in meta-galactic orbits - Itinerary, Adrienne Rich



 The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites.- Elizabeth Hardwick


 
“An Egoless Practice”: Tantric Art


 Childhood is so protean. - Norman Mailer


 With humor you have to look out for traps.-James Thurber




He’d take me to restaurants and things. Showed me jujitsu in a restaurant. Threw me over his head..-Robert Frost
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How to Sharpen Pencils: A Demonstration



I cut the cord. I said, I will do only what I can do, express what I am—that’s why I used the first person-Henry Miller




 

 
I fell asleep and woke up the next morning with the book there in bed beside me, along with my wife.-Raymond Carver



 I think the writer ought to help the reader as much as he can without damaging what he wants to say.-James Jones



 
In the land of the free, one sentence must be as good as another because that is democracy.-Gore Vidal



 I have a longing, not for obscurity—I'm too egotistical for that—but for peace, and freedom from meddling.-Saul Bellow



 There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program - your tax-dollar will go further.

- Wernher von Braun



 I would gladly have traded what I have tried to say for what came off my tongue, naturally. -William Carlos Williams



 

 

  

 
Writing describes a range of activities, like farming. Plowing virgin fields—writing—demands freshness.-David Mitchell

Selected Letters of William S. Burroughs



Truth is the most important thing that there is, and if you lose sight of it, your writing will be destroyed in the end. - William Trevor...

A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error – EB White




I’ve always liked the uniform of a poet. I’ve gone through some nice pajamas - Kay Ryan



Even more than appearing clever, the writer had wanted to be profound.-The Epigraph



 
On LSD: The thing is, it's information—extraordinary and deeply relieving information.-Robert Creeley




An electrical impulse zings out ricochets in meta-galactic orbits - Itinerary, Adrienne Rich:





 
Today I’m a five-o’clock-in-the-morning riser. Although I do stare at the wall a lot – Samuel R. Delany
 

Lunch Poems, Mixtapes, Beats
 
10 Literary Bars in Manhattan!


 
MAD Men: An interview with the brains behind many a MAD parody!
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You can be nasty when you are young, but you really have to be older to achieve bitterness.-Fran Lebowitz




The Martian label means everything and nothing, since I think all writers are Martians.-Martin Amis

 
The D was missing from the sign so that it now read bor ers. - Wings, Lorrie Moore
 

 
in solvency, fiction:
View photo
 
The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites.- Elizabeth Hardwick





 
“An Egoless Practice”: Tantric Art
 
 

 
Childhood is so protean. - Norman Mailer

Odd Corners Round About Brooklyn
 
 
With humor you have to look out for traps.-James Thurber



He’d take me to restaurants and things. Showed me jujitsu in a restaurant. Threw me over his head..-Robert Frost
 


How to Sharpen Pencils: A Demonstration
 


I cut the cord. I said, I will do only what I can do, express what I am—that’s why I used the first person-Henry Miller
 



I fell asleep and woke up the next morning with the book there in bed beside me, along with my wife.-Raymond Carver
 



Which do you prefer: Gatsby (1926) or Gatsby (seemingly 2026)?
 




I think the writer ought to help the reader as much as he can without damaging what he wants to say.-James Jones
 


It is more horrifying when something is insinuated - Javier Marías




Saddam Hussein's publishing deal, Singing Babushki, The Bard of McSorley's, Cupcakes or "Fairy Cakes"?
 
 
I have a longing, not for obscurity—I'm too egotistical for that—but for peace, and freedom from meddling.-Saul Bellow



In the land of the free, one sentence must be as good as another because that is democracy.-Gore Vidal





I would gladly have traded what I have tried to say for what came off my tongue, naturally. -William Carlos Williams














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