#writing

"Books are for nothing but to inspire"

"One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper."

"Talent is a faucet. When it is on, one must write. Inspiration is a farce that poets have invented to give themselves importance."

"Anyone who has no need of anybody but himself is either a beast or a God."Aristotle"

"if you think they didn't go crazy in tiny rooms just like you're doing now without women without food without hope then you're not ready."

"A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her opinions, admires her understanding, or will refuse, though the rapier is denied him, to run through the body with his pen."

"Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design."

"You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world."

"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 good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled."

"If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write."

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

"Women want love to be a novel. Men, a short story."

"Because even among contrarians, I’m a contrarian. But all of this is just words of bronze, third place rhetoric. What do I really mean when I say we want to shock society into awareness? Do we mean we want more originality and individuality? Less TV, more reading, writing, actual thinking? Less sheep, more shepherd pie? Yes, yes, and a little more pie, please. Oh, and some more sweet tea, too"

"Look, don't just stare at the pages,"I used to tell my students. "Become the characters. Live inside the book."

"Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal."

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

"If I lived a million lives, I would've felt a million feelings and I still would've fallen a million times for you."

"A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity."[Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922]"

"Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen."