Arts, Media & Entertainment: Writing Quotes

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"There are so many good authors; there's no shortage of them"

Jeanne Calment, Celebrity

"If the little bit you have is nothing special in itself, at least find a way of saying it that is a little bit special"

Georg C. Lichtenberg, Scientist

"Would Alexander, madman as he was, have been so much a madman, had it not been for Homer?"

Samuel Richardson, Novelist

"Many contemporary authors drink more than they write"

Maxim Gorky, Novelist

"My characters all start with rhythms and sounds. Once I hear the voice and get into the rhythm, the attitude and the physicality just come out on their own"

Dana Carvey, Comedian

"I enjoy pushing my characters to the limit. No matter how far out there I go, I look for things that make the characters human"

Dana Carvey, Comedian

"Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it"

Michael Crichton, Author

"Writer's block is the greatest side effect of boredom"

Jason Zebehazy, Businessman

"If all else fails, there's always print or web zines"

Rudy Rucker, Scientist

"I believe the adventure game genre will never die any more than any type of storytelling would ever die"

Roberta Williams, Designer

"The last three books are much more a case of a moment of history, what happened almost by accident or coincidence, like being in the same elevator or lifeboat"

Michael Ondaatje, Author

"A writer uses a pen instead of a scalpel or blow torch"

Michael Ondaatje, Author

"In pure literature, the writers of the eighteenth century achieved, indeed, many triumphs; but their great, their peculiar, triumphs were in the domain of thought"

Lytton Strachey, Critic

"I never deliberately set out to shock, but when people don't walk out of my plays I think there is something wrong"

John Osborne, Playwright

"I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings"

Mary Oliver, Poet

"Many children's writers don't have children of their own"

Mark Haddon, Novelist

"I started writing books for children because I could illustrate them myself and because, in my innocence, I thought they'd be easier"

Mark Haddon, Novelist

"Even this vein of writing is so foreign to me that I am amazed"

David O. Selznick, Producer

"It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself"

Michael Ondaatje, Author

"My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work"

Mary Oliver, Poet

"Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene"

Mark Haddon, Novelist

"There really isn't a story that you can't tell inside of it. It's very much a clearinghouse for anything that goes on in the world. So you're not at all limited"

Aaron Sorkin, Producer

"I saw a photograph of a wedding conducted by Reverend Moon of the Unification Church. I wanted to understand this event, and the only way to understand it was to write about it"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows"

Edward Koch, Politician

"Literature is my calling; To hold up the mirror to my countrymen comes natural to me; and in the open field of invention I am not without hopes of giving them pleasure"

Thomas Edward Brown, Poet

"I didn't have any agenda or plan when I started writing stuff"

David Byrne, Musician

"It's populated by people who, by and large, have terrific communication skills. Every day is an extraordinary day. For me, it was just a great area for storytelling"

Aaron Sorkin, Producer

"The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"I think a playwright realizes after he finishes working on the script that this is only the beginning. What will happen when it moves into three dimensions?"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"I felt Joyce was an influence on my fiction, but in a very general way, as a kind of inspiration and a model for the beauty of language"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book, your composition of yourself is at stake"

E. L. Doctorow, Author

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing"

E. L. Doctorow, Author

"You've got to write for your audience"

John Ratzenberger, Actor

"Great writers are the saints for the godless"

Anita Brookner, Historian

"Chicago is a sort of journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to a last herd of fantastic bravos"

Ben Hecht, Writer

"There are two ways to worry words. One is hoping for the greatest possible beauty in what is created. The other is to tell the truth"

June Jordan, Writer

"There is no more respected or influential forum in the field of journalism than the New York Times. I look forward, with great anticipation, to contributing to its op-ed page"

Ted Koppel, Journalist

"Some ideas you have to chew on, then roll them around a lot, play with them before you can turn them into funky science fiction"

Rudy Rucker, Scientist

"Right now, I have no idea what I will write or if I will write again"

Michael Ondaatje, Author

"I don't have a plan for a story when I sit down to write. I would get quite bored carrying it out"

Michael Ondaatje, Author

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