Writing
Quotes - Writing is a form of therapy
“If
you want to write a fantasy story with Norse gods, sentient robots, and
telepathic dinosaurs, you can do just that. Want to throw in a vampire and a
lesbian unicorn while you're at it? Go ahead. Nothing's off limits. But the
endless possibility of the genre is a trap. It's easy to get distracted by the
glittering props available to you and forget what you're supposed to be doing:
telling a good story. Don't get me wrong, magic is cool. But a nervous mother
singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark
outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly, it's more dramatic than
any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.”
―
Patrick Rothfuss
“Sometimes
writing is running downhill, your fingers jerking behind you on the keyboard
the way your legs do when they can’t quite keep up with gravity.”
―
Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl
“Art
never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it
is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand
it.”
―
Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
“For
it would seem - her case proved it - that we write, not with the fingers, but
with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about
every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.”
―
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
“Deliver
me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad
person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth
is it for.”
―
Alice Walker
“Writing
is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write,
compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and
fear which is inherent in a human situation.”
―
Graham Greene, Ways of Escape
“The
soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.”
―
Emily Dickinson
“This
tremendous world I have inside of me. How to free myself, and this world,
without tearing myself to pieces. And rather tear myself to a thousand pieces
than be buried with this world within me.”
―
Kafka Franz, Diaries, 1910-1923
“Grand.
There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.”
―
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“How
do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
―
E.M. Forster
“To
write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise
man.”
―
Aristotle
“I
embrace the label of bad feminist because I am human. I am messy. I’m not
trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say
I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I’m right. I am just
trying—trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this
world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself.”
―
Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist
“Here
is a lesson in creative writing.
First
rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing
absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.
And
I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or
not. So from now on I will tell you when I'm kidding.
For
instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I'm
kidding.
We
are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always
seems to scare them away. I'm kidding.
If
you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay,
the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a
way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.
Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul
grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories.
Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can.
You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
―
Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
“Writing
a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the
teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is
an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to
the system.”
―
Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
“Talent
is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential.”
―
Jessamyn West
“My
books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.”
―
Mark Twain, Notebook
