I love good quotes, especially from writers. Here are more favorites:
I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension. -- Norman Mailer
Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass. -- Anton Chekov
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. -- Henry David Thoreau
Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it? -- Philip Pullman
Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those who do. -- Cyril Connolly
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. -- William Wordsworth
I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer. -- Doris Lessing
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. -- CS Lewis
...reading is the creative center of a writer's life...you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you. -- Stephen King
Do any of these speak to you? Have you run across any good quotes lately?
6 comments:
Well, I love the Chekhov quote. One of these days I should get a book of his shorts and read them all. Some I read years ago ...
And Thoreau's quote is wonderful. When I was 12, I decided I'd be a writer like AJ Cronin (physician turned writer) and I always thought that time would happen when I became a grandmother. Seemed like a suitable amount of time to live first.
And here's a quote to share by Albert Camus: Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.
Vijaya -- It doesn't seem all that unusual that doctors often write, does it? I feel like I run into them often enough that there's a pattern. I think it's wonderful that at 12 you thought you could be a doctor, a writer, AND a grandmother (meaning, you'd be a mother first). I would have thought doctoring and ANY other life wouldn't have worked, b/c that's the model my family doctor (male) set.
These are all superb and motivating.
There is an untitled poem by Karla Kuskin whose first two lines go like this (and I was reminded of it by Chekov's quote):
Write about a radish
Too many people write about the moon
(the poem goes on with an image of night and a radish rising in the sky).
I like Chekhov's and Thoureau's the best--in fact, I already have them hanging up in my writing space. :)
They all speak to me in different ways, which is why I love reading quotes. For example, I agree with Henry David Thoreau, yet I relate to what Doris Lessing writes about how one gives up a great deal of personal life to be a writer. Wonderful insights.
Barbara -- That's a wonderful quote. I wonder, though, if the radish could get published today.
Faith -- I've got a few favorite quotes in my writing space, too. Just seems any good writer's space should include a few quotes! :)
Cynthia -- And I love how pithy quotes are. Even better than poetry, they say so much in few words and hit the nail right on the head.
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