Arts, Media & Entertainment: Writing Quotes

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"The stories are not autobiographical, but they're personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I've learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal"

Alice Munro, Writer

"In the end, Dan Rather's legend skewered him, CBS, and the craft of journalism"

Tina Brown, Editor

"Usually, when people get to the end of a chapter, they close the book and go to sleep. I deliberately write a book so when the reader gets to the end of the chapter, he or she must turn one more page"

Sidney Sheldon, Novelist

"There has been so much rubbish written up in the papers over the years"

Ronald Biggs, Celebrity

"I just like being all over the place and writing whatever comes to mind. Having the tools? It's such a gift"

Regina Spektor, Musician

"Writers let themselves be enticed by the language"

Peter Bichsel, Writer

"Neophyte writers tend to believe that there is something magical about ideas and that if they can just get a hold of a good one, then their futures are ensured"

Lynn Abbey, Author

"There is an incompatibility between literary creation and political activity"

Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer

"Since it is impossible to know what's really happening, we Peruvians lie, invent, dream and take refuge in illusion. Because of these strange circumstances, Peruvian life, a life in which so few actually do read, has become literary"

Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer

"I am one of the writers who wish to create serious works of literature which dissociate themselves from those novels which are mere reflections of the vast consumer cultures of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large"

Kenzaburo Oe, Writer

"While I was writing Wild Swans, I thought the famine was the result of economic mismanagement, but during the research, I realised that it was something more sinister"

Jung Chang, Writer

"Everyone thinks they're going to write one book of poems or one novel"

Marilyn Hacker, Poet

"We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand"

C. Day Lewis, Poet

"I'm not happy when I'm writing, but I'm more unhappy when I'm not"

Fannie Hurst, Writer

"I was publishing when I was 20, 21. And it really never stopped"

Daniel Berrigan, Clergyman

"I felt a little green, because Shakespeare writes the thought process within the text; it was tricky not to think of what to say and then say it, and instead just deliver the lines"

Neil Patrick Harris, Actor

"Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can't be taught"

Paul Desmond, Musician

"The first is that instead of writing a sequel, which is what most people do, this is in fact a prequel. Although we didn't know that when we began the process"

James Collins, Athlete

"In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it"

Alex Haley, Novelist

"Our great American writers were all newspaper people"

John Gould, Writer

"I think for a young journalist, it's better to write for the Web at the moment than it is for print"

Tina Brown, Editor

"I just simply write as it moves me. I may be writing about a book or a movie or a person, places where I've been, or something I've done. Or politics. It's going to what's on my mind at the moment"

Tina Brown, Editor

"The act of writing is a kind of catharsis, a liberation, but I never really concerned myself with that. I write because it interests me"

Nathalie Sarraute, Lawyer

"Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning"

James McBride, Writer

"You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be"

Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer

"Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories"

Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer

"I'm terrible at story and structure, but I'm not so bad at writing dialogue"

Steve Buscemi, Actor

"Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters"

Steve Buscemi, Actor

"And sometimes I sit down to write because that is what I like to do more and more in the future"

Jonathan Brandis, Actor

"The novel moves like all the arts. It's transforming itself all the time"

Nathalie Sarraute, Lawyer

"I get a fine warm feeling when I'm doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much negated by the pain of getting started each day. Let's face it, writing is hell"

William Styron, Novelist

"I say that I can't make anything up. I think of myself as a collage artist. I'm cutting and pasting memories of my life. And I say, I have to live a life in order to tell a life. I would prefer to tell it because telling you're always in control, you're like God"

Spalding Gray, Actor

"There's this sense of excitement because you invent and control the characters. You decide whether they live or die. I find this type of creative process tremendously stimulating"

Sidney Sheldon, Novelist

"The fact that my female characters have strong personalities but are also physically attractive probably reflects the women I've known in my life"

Sidney Sheldon, Novelist

"I think that's because believable action is based on authenticity, and accuracy is very important to me. I always spend time researching my novels, exploring the customs and attitudes of the county I'm using for their setting"

Sidney Sheldon, Novelist

"My creative partner is a writer, and he's got an executive producing credit on this film. We've made three films together and I would never underestimate the impact of a writer"

Taylor Hackford, Director

"I try to give both my heroes and villains an emotional dimensionality which provides the motivation for their actions"

Sidney Sheldon, Novelist

"I love the freedom that the narrative form provides"

Sidney Sheldon, Novelist

"I want to write such things as compel the admiring acclamation of the world at large, such things as are written but once in years, things subtle but distinctly different from the books written every day"

Mary MacLane, Writer

"I like playing around with the words; I love it when I feel like I've picked the exact right word to describe whatever it is I'm trying to describe"

Margaret Haddix, Author

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