Writing Quotes - Page 638

Composition is a process of combination, in which thought puts together complementary truths, and talent fuses into harmony the most contrary qualities of style. So that there is no composition without effort, without pain even, as in all bringing forth. The reward is the giving birth to something living--something, that is to say, which, by a kind of magic, makes a living unity out of such opposed attributes as orderliness and spontaneity, thought and imagination, solidity and charm.

I have these guilts about never having read Chaucer but I was talked out of learning Early Anglo-Saxon / Middle English by a friend who had to take it for her Ph.D. They told her to write an essay in Early Anglo-Saxon on any-subject-of-her-own-choosing. “Which is all very well,” she said bitterly, “but the only essay subject you can find enough Early Anglo-Saxon words for is ‘How to Slaughter a Thousand Men in a Mead Hall’.

People will always write and think all sorts of things – be irritated by us, have affection for us, think we dress coolly or disastrously. It’s whatever.

It's amazing how much time and money can be saved in the world of dating by close attention to detail. A white sock here, a pair of red braces there, a gray slip-on shoe, a swastika, are as often as not all one needs to tell you there's no point in writing down phone numbers and forking out for expensive lunches because it's never going to be a runner.

A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into.

Write . . . write . . . pencil . . . paper.

If one has no heart, one cannot write for the masses.

You talk of our having an idea; we do not have an idea. The idea has us, and martyrs us, and scourges us, and drives us into the arena to fight and die for it, whether we want to or not.

I'm quite good at multitasking, but I have to do things immediately. I have a book where I write things down: major topics, deadlines, things like that. Every few months, I start a new book.

I write, fighting for every sentence, fighting to hold the reader with every paragraph.

It is the little writer rather than the great writer who seems never to quote, and the reason is that he is never really doing anything else.

Pale ink is better than the most retentive memory. If it's written down, you can look it up. Just be damn sure you write it down.

I write weird stories. I don't know why I like weirdness so much ... But when I write, I write weird. That's very strange. When I'm getting more and more serious, I'm getting more and more weird.

Music always stimulates my imagination. When I'm writing I usually have some Baroque music on low in the background chamber music by Bach, Telemann, and the like.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

Writing is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward.

Writing is a holy chore.

Writing a novel in general is like trying to reach a mountain top you'll never quite reach - so you try again and maybe get a little closer.

If you were to write down all the possible ways to motivate people to do better work, friendly praise would have to come near the head of your list.

For excellence, the presence of others is always required.

In crime fiction, I just don't write the parts that aren't a thriller and it's exactly the same in my TV reporting - I distill the essence of the story until it's only the jewels of the tale - and leave in only the most compelling and exciting parts.

Each day is a surprise - and each day I learn something wonderful and new. Both in writing thrillers and in reporting the news, I work to change the world a little bit. I want readers - and viewers - to be surprised and captivated and even inspired.

Write what you care about, what interests and intrigues you.

I was an outsider, never quite part of what was going on, always looking in. It turned out to be great preparation for writing fiction.

Writing does for me what giving milk does for a cow.