Arts, Media & Entertainment: Writing Quotes

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"I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse"

Anthony Trollope, Author

"I'm most suspicious of scripts that have a lot of stage direction at the top of the page... sunrise over the desert and masses of... a whole essay before you get to the dialogue"

Anthony Hopkins, Actor

"Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write"

Anthony Trollope, Author

"But then in novels the most indifferent hero comes out right at last. Some god comes out of a theatrical cloud and leaves the poor devil ten thousand-a-year and a title"

Anthony Trollope, Author

"I can only write about personal stuff, about my point of view"

Henry Rollins, Musician

"I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous"

Keith Richards, Musician

"Those who prefer their English sloppy, have only themselves to thank if the advertisement writer uses his mastery of the vocabulary and syntax to mislead their weak minds"

Dorothy L. Sayers, Author

"There certainly does seem a possibility that the detective story will come to an end, simply because the public will have learnt all the tricks"

Dorothy L. Sayers, Author

"The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine"

Dorothy L. Sayers, Author

"The best thing about writing is that you can do it anywhere. The worst thing about writing is also that you can do it anywhere"

Otto Friedrich, Writer

"What is most important for me is to tell a story, not to prove a point"

Otto Friedrich, Writer

"Mark Twain cannot be defined"

Hal Holbrook, Actor

"The point of the essay is to change things"

Edward Tufte, Educator

"I always wrote; my first story was published in the magazine The American Girl when I was 11"

Sara Paretsky, Author

"So fantasy was fine early on, and when I discovered science fiction, I was very happy with it, because my first interest in science fiction came with an interest in astronomy"

Octavia Butler, Writer

"Here I was into astronomy, and here into anthropology, and there I go into geology. It was much more fun to be able to research and write about whatever I wanted to"

Octavia Butler, Writer

"The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have survived even in part"

Richard Stallman, Scientist

"I have some shorter stories coming out in other books early next year. I might be pitching a re-vamp of Ghost Rider in the spring. We'll see"

Patton Oswalt, Comedian

"I thought I'd write one book and the world would change overnight"

James Levine, Musician

"If you're a good journalist, what you do is live a lot of things vicariously, and report them for other people who want to live vicariously"

Harry Reasoner, Journalist

"Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write"

Sara Paretsky, Author

"Around the time I turned 30, I wanted to publish a novel"

Sara Paretsky, Author

"It's very hard to find critics or a magazine today that will publish material that is genuinely independent and written without any concern about being cut off some distributor's list, or not be invited or flown into screenings"

Wim Wenders, Director

"I am a writer who happens to love women. I am not a lesbian who happens to write"

Jeanette Winterson, Novelist

"The attempt to devote oneself to literature alone is a most deceptive thing, and often, paradoxically, it is literature that suffers for it"

Vaclav Havel, Leader

"Writers have to have a knack for listening. I need to be able to hear what is being said to me by the voices I create"

Jeanette Winterson, Novelist

"I don't write for any group. I write to bring about a change in consciousness"

Jeanette Winterson, Novelist

"Creative work is incredibly difficult, and that is where the tests lie"

Jeanette Winterson, Novelist

"Europe has a press that stresses opinions; America a press, radio, and television that emphasize news"

James Reston, Journalist

"You can go into Mark Twain's material and prove anything you want. He was against war. He was for war. He was against rich people and he was for them. He was a kaleidoscope"

Hal Holbrook, Actor

"The best source for finding an agent is called Literary Agents of North America. It's a complete list of agents, not only by name and address, but by type of book they represent and by what their submission criteria are"

Sara Paretsky, Author

"Well, writing was what I wanted to do, it was always what I wanted to do. I had novels to write, so I wrote them"

Octavia Butler, Writer

"Third, for people who aren't doing it already, take classes - they're worthwhile. Workshops or classes - a workshop is where you do actually get feedback on your work, not just something where you go and sit for a day"

Octavia Butler, Writer

"And I have this little litany of things they can do. And the first one, of course, is to write - every day, no excuses. It's so easy to make excuses. Even professional writers have days when they'd rather clean the toilet than do the writing"

Octavia Butler, Writer

"A workshop is a way of renting an audience, and making sure you're communicating what you think you're communicating. It's so easy as a young writer to think you're been very clear when in fact you haven't"

Octavia Butler, Writer

"Anyone who writes an autobiographical work at the age of 34 is, at best, presumptuous. It occurred to me that it was time to set the record straight"

Jessica Savitch, Journalist

"I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likable female private investigator, and that's how VI came to life"

Sara Paretsky, Author

"I had wanted to write Ghost Country for a long time, but it wouldn't work"

Sara Paretsky, Author

"Steve Martin is such an exquisite and precise writer. Everything is so clear; it's like a bell. He says what he means and says it so beautifully"

Jason Schwartzman, Actor

"Dobie was so well written and so ahead of its time"

Dwayne Hickman, Actor

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