Arts, Media & Entertainment: Writing Quotes

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"If I were a writer, how I would enjoy being told the novel is dead. How liberating to work in the margins, outside a central perception. You are the ghoul of literature. Lovely!"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"When you try to unravel something you've written, you belittle it in a way. It was created as a mystery"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"Every sentence has a truth waiting at the end of it, and the writer learns how to know it when he finally gets there"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon"

E. L. Doctorow, Author

"Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again"

Dorothy Day, Activist

"True terror is a language and a vision. There is a deep narrative structure to terrorist acts, and they infiltrate and alter consciousness in ways that writers used to aspire to"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"I've always liked being relatively obscure. I feel that's where I belong, that's where my work belongs"

Don DeLillo, Novelist

"Oh, I had an idea for a pilot of my own at the time, and then Carl sent me about eight scripts and simply, I threw my idea out the window because the writing was just so good"

Dick Van Dyke, Actor

"The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century"

E. L. Doctorow, Author

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia"

E. L. Doctorow, Author

"Television doesn't make stars. It's the written media, the press, that makes stars"

Chevy Chase, Comedian

"I write easily, let's put it that way. And in a novel, particularly, the characters take over. And they tell me what to say and they tell me what they're doing. And I'm a third of the way into a novel, and then I just let the characters finish it for me"

Andrew Greeley, Clergyman

"Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted"

Anita Brookner, Historian

"I wouldn't say the world is my parish, but my readers are my parish. And especially the readers that write to me. They're my parish. And it's a responsibility that I enjoy"

Andrew Greeley, Clergyman

"You never know what you will learn till you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed"

Anita Brookner, Historian

"The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character"

Antonio Tabucchi, Writer

"Literature for me isn't a workaday job, but something which involves desires, dreams and fantasy"

Antonio Tabucchi, Writer

"Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself!"

James Stephens, Poet

"It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection"

Antonio Tabucchi, Writer

"In a novel, my feelings and sense of outrage can find a broader means of expression which would be more symbolic and applicable to many European countries"

Antonio Tabucchi, Writer

"I don't want to promote my own image either. I don't like going on television or mixing in literary circles!"

Antonio Tabucchi, Writer

"As a writer, I've always been interested in others"

Antonio Tabucchi, Writer

"Our stock in trade is raw, flailing sex"

Al Goldstein, Publisher

"There is only one thing which can master the perplexed stuff of epic material into unity; and that is, an ability to see in particular human experience some significant symbolism of man's general destiny"

Lascelles Abercrombie, Poet

"The first epics were intended for recitation; the literary epic is meant to be read"

Lascelles Abercrombie, Poet

"It is more difficult to keep the attention of hearers than of readers"

Lascelles Abercrombie, Poet

"No piece of writing is ever finished. It's just due"

Bill Condon, Director

"I separate myself from my characters as much as possible, but I have these books that I create which are interactive diaries/timelines/memory books/pictures of the character's entire world"

Sydney Sweeney, Actress

"I build my characters from the day they're born to the first page of the script"

Sydney Sweeney, Actress

"The novel is the best way to explore the complex depths of human nature"

Ismail Kadare, Novelist

"Literature is the best way to understand the soul of a nation"

Ismail Kadare, Novelist

"I'm a writer and this is what I love to do"

Gloria Estefan, Musician

"I don't think I could have written what I did any earlier"

Terry Goodkind, Writer

"And, of course, some SF is set close enough to here and now that Anglo and European do apply. Since many of the writers come from those backgrounds, so does much of the fiction"

Stanley Schmidt, Writer

"I find it very hard to sit down and create an idea or especially a new character on command. Usually my characters evolve by accident out of some story context"

John Kricfalusi, Artist

"I'm always jotting things down on pieces of paper. I've got pieces of paper all over my house"

Don Henley, Musician

"It's frustrating not to have more control over your material"

Terry Southern, Writer

"David Burnett was the son of Martha Foley, who edited the Best American Short Stories series. She hired me to work with David and her to read stories for the anthology"

Terry Southern, Writer

"You're torn between wanting to fill in all the spaces and knowing that's really going to screw up the screenplay. And yet, how are you going to communicate it to people who really don't understand the process?"

Robert Towne, Actor

"If you have a good ear for dialogue, you just can't help thinking about the way people talk. You're drawn to it. And the obsessive interest in it forces you to develop it. You almost can't help yourself"

Robert Towne, Actor

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