#writing

"She looked away. Her attitude seemed to suggest that she had finished with him, and would be obliged if somebody would come and sweep him up."

"I do believe that characters in novels belong to their writers and their readers pretty equally. I've learned a lot of things about the characters I write from people who read about them. Readers expand them in ways I don't think of and take them to places I can't go."

"Write what you know."

"If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy."

"I’m trying to translate what my cat says and put it in a book, but how many homonyms are there for meow?"

"Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river."

"the writing of somemenis like a vast bridgethat carries youoverthe many thingsthat claw and tear.The Wine of Forever"

"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

"In high school I used to write my love notes backwards, so she'd have to flip the paper upside-down to read it. Either that or read it in a mirror, so she can see herself as I see her, and see why I admire her."

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."

"[A]lways get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a big slab of prose at the start."(Interview, The Paris Review, Issue 64, Winter 1975)"

"Your current circumstances are part of your redemption story He is writing."

"Everywhere I go, I am asked if I think university stifles writers. My opinion is that it doesn't stifle enough of them."

"(W)hat I write when I force myself is generally just as good as what I write when I'm feeling inspired. It's mainly a matter of forcing yourself to write."

"Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don't care who's listening."

"Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician."

"Every true writer is like a bird; he repeats the same song, the same theme, all his life. For me, this theme as always been revolt."

"I don't know why I started writing. I don't know why anybody does it. Maybe they're bored, or failures at something else."

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

"With writing, we have second chances."