writing

"Imagination is what you do with your inspiration."

"The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you must do everyday. There are two reasons for this rule: Getting the work done and connecting with your unconscious mind."

"A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."

"I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything."

"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship."

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

"Long before I became a feminist in any explicit way, I had turned from writing love stories about women in which women were losers, and adventure stories about men in which the men were winners, to writing adventure stories about a woman in which the woman won. It was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life."

"My advice to aspiring writers is to read more, write more, and network more. More, more, and more. Then, after you've done all that, do it some more."

"You never push a noun against a verb without trying to blow up something."

"When you write about what you dream, you become a writer.When you dream about what you write, you become haunted by a curse."

"Mrs. Landingham, does the President have free time this morning?""The President has nothing but free time, Toby. Right now he's in the residence eating Cheerios and enjoying Regis and Kathie Lee. Should I get him for you?""Sarcasm's a disturbing thing coming from a woman of your age, Mrs. Landingham.""What age would that be, Toby?""Late twenties?""Atta boy."

"A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way."

"Who cares about pretty? I'm going for noticeable."

"The problem is acceptance, which is something we're taught not to do. We're taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality that you have been given- that you are not in a productive creative period- you free yourself to begin filling up again."

"An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere."

"The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself."