Arts, Media & Entertainment: Writing Quotes

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"There's a sense of spontaneity, and no emphasis on jokes in this show. People generally talk the way they talk in life if you were in this particular situation"

Larry David, Actor

"If any sort of error is inexcusable, it's an incorrect phone number. One of the cardinal rules of copy editing is that every phone number published must be checked"

Bill Walsh, Editor

"I caution against beginning or ending a quotation with ellipses"

Bill Walsh, Editor

"You kind of hope that the events themselves are interesting. I think that's what you have to hope for, that on a broad level it's an interesting story"

Chester Brown, Cartoonist

"The main problem was a pacing problem. I had wanted the project to be about 20-30 issues, and I should have written it out as a full script beforehand"

Chester Brown, Cartoonist

"I was looking to do something non-fiction because I had done a strip, 'My Mom Was a Schizophrenic.' I really enjoyed the process of doing that strip, despite its subject matter. To do it I'd had to do a lot of research and reading and I figured I'd like to do that again"

Chester Brown, Cartoonist

"We wanted to create an environment where if a game player enjoyed the "writing style" of a particular game designer, he or she could look for the next game by that same author and not be disappointed"

David Crane

"The letters were universally complimentary, and we designers loved hearing that our games were being enjoyed, but if they weren't sending us a picture of their screens, most of those writers would have spent their time playing the game rather than writing letters"

David Crane

"The words are ludicrous at times, but you add the reality to it and that gives it the balance it has"

Alia Shawkat, Actress

"Hidden in a long text, there are perhaps three lines that count"

Alexander Kluge, Director

"But, if there's any aspect of my career that needs attention, it's writing"

Bobby McFerrin, Musician

"The biggest difference between Kennedy and Nixon, as far as the press is concerned, is simply this: Jack Kennedy really liked newspaper people and he really enjoyed sparring with journalists"

Ben Bradlee, Editor

"I formed a resolution to never write a word I did not want to write; to think only of my own tastes and ideals, without a thought of those of editors or publishers"

C. S. Forester, Novelist

"You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as if they are pontificating if they tell the story"

Ann Beattie, Writer

"It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that"

Ann Beattie, Writer

"The first book that they gave me was Jeannie, a young teenager. I went on with her maybe ten books"

Dan DeCarlo, Cartoonist

"It's also possible to have two third person singular points of view, as represented by two characters through whose eyes the story is told in alternating chapters, say"

Arthur Herzog, Novelist

"But whatever the POV, and the difficulty of forcing the action into a particular frame, stay within it"

Arthur Herzog, Novelist

"The universal narrator knows all and can enter a character's head any time he chooses"

Arthur Herzog, Novelist

"Since 1985, I have written about contemporary Jewish practice and the Jewish community"

Anita Diament, Author

"There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that they exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples"

Bram Stoker, Writer

"It would be curious to discover who it is to whom one writes in a diary. Possibly to some mysterious personification of one's own identity?"

Beatrice Webb, Sociologist

"I have no plans for a future Jemima Shore mystery, but would write one tomorrow if a good idea came to me"

Antonia Fraser, Author

"They cut about seven minutes from that broadcast, but it was still vital to the story's momentum"

Ben Bradlee, Editor

"There have been as many investigative reporters on this newspaper working on Clinton's many problems as I can remember, there were working on Watergate"

Ben Bradlee, Editor

"Sure, some journalists use anonymous sources just because they're lazy, and I think editors ought to insist on more precise identification, even if they remain anonymous"

Ben Bradlee, Editor

"It's gratifying that it does; I love to give readings"

Ann Beattie, Writer

"Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard"

Daphne du Maurier, Novelist

"When I was very young, I used to share much of what I wrote with my family, but as I got older and more self-conscious, it became a much more private process"

Anita Desai, Novelist

"Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book"

Anita Desai, Novelist

"When I started writing a business column 15 years ago, I knew I'd found the perfect job for myself. As a columnist I could pick my own topic, do my own analysis, say what I wanted to say and attribute it to myself. Best of all, I could write in my own voice"

Allan Sloan, Journalist

"I mean, the problem is, I think I'm a great writer"

Aaron Eckhart, Actor

"I know some things when I start. I know, let's say, that the play is going to be a 1970s or a 1930s play, and it's going to be about a piano, but that's it. I slowly discover who the characters are as I go along"

August Wilson, Playwright

"I'm not a born writer, and I don't enjoy writing"

Alistair Maclean, Novelist

"I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works"

Ann Beattie, Writer

"I feel that these stories are being written to articulate certain confusions and disappointments, and I do mean to shake up the reader, and I do hope they're on target"

Ann Beattie, Writer

"I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality"

Ann Beattie, Writer

"Sometimes it seems like there's more footnotes than text. This isn't something we're proud of, and over time we'd like to see our footnotes steadily shrink"

Barry Diller, Businessman

"I try to trace the connection between the characters, and that way a story or plot emerges"

Anita Desai, Novelist

"It was a presidential election year, and as a member of a consortium of Ivy League radio stations, we participated in 'network' coverage of election night"

Andrea Mitchell, Journalist

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