writing

"No one wants to read poetry. You have to make it impossible for them to put the poem down--impossible for them to stop reading it, word after word. You have to keep them from closing the book."

"Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it."

"Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version."

"To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head - and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It's an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that's not the most important thing. It's the work itself."

"A tamed woman will never leave her mark in the world."

"Almost everyone can remember losing his or her virginity, and most writers can remember the first book he/she put down thinking: I can do better than this. Hell, I am doing better than this! What could be more encouraging to the struggling writer than to realize his/her work is unquestionably better than that of someone who actually got paid for his/her stuff?"

"My writing has appeared in the New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, though whenever the newsstand guy catches me scribbling my poetry in them, he always comes along later and erases it."

"We aren't suggesting that mental instability or unhappiness makes one a better poet, or a poet at all; and contrary to the romantic notion of the artist suffering for his or her work, we think these writers achieved brilliance in spite of their suffering, not because of it."

"A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one."

"Then you should say what you mean,"the March Hare went on. "I do,"Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know.""Not the same thing a bit!"said the Hatter. "You might just as well say that "I see what I eat"is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!"

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."

"You’re not a bad person, you’re just a little bit different and I’m a sucker for that."

"Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings."

"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public."

"If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!"

"A book is a suicide postponed."

"Write about the emotions you fear the most."

"You're miserable, edgy and tired. You're in the perfect mood for journalism."

"Wordplay hides a key to reality that the dictionary tries in vain to lock inside every free word."

"The best part about being a writer is being able to communicate with people without moving my lips. The mouth is better used for kissing."