On Writing Quotes

It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, of writing or worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man.

Write the story that only you can write.

Life sometimes gets in the way of writing.

A story needs rhythm. Read it aloud to yourself. If it doesn't spin a bit of magic, it's missing something.

In order to play and write, it's unique - you either do one or the other.

A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.

I think that I've tried many times to get Cuba in my writings, especially Havana, which was once a great and fascinating city.

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.

You can't write a song out of thin air you have to feel and know what you are writing about.

I write to discover what I think.

Isn't one of your first exercises in learning how to communicate to write a description of how to tie your shoelaces? The point being that it's basically impossible to use text to show that

I'm sure someone out there has a workable solution. But what do I know? I make comic books and write about jazz. I do know the difference between right and wrong, though.

It is not possible to write clearly enough to avoid being misrepresented by people who are sufficiently determined to do so.

We write by the light of every story we have ever read.

All a poet can do today is warn.

It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.

I dream too much, and I don't write enough, and I'm trying to find God everywhere.

I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word [...] - a jouuuuuurney.

The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.

When something is bothering me, I write a song that tells my feelings.

In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.

Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.

When I write, the first blank page, or any blank page, means nothing to me. What means something is a page that has been filled with words.

I rewrote the ending of 'Farewell to Arms' 39 times before I was satisfied.

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.

I've learned this, that haters wanna hate. You could sing a song perfectly, you could write the songs perfectly, and some people are absolutely going to hate you.

The only book that is worth writing is the one we don’t have the courage or strength to write. The book that hurts us (we who are writing), that makes us tremble, redden, bleed

The country will some day pay for the stupidities of those who were in the majority on this commission. They know as much about the future of aviation as they do about the sign writing of the Aztecs.

Write as often as possible, not with the idea at once of getting into print, but as if you were learning an instrument.

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.

What I think is the most important thing to learn about any instrument is the basics of music. Learn your ABCs before you write a Hemingway novel.

A good writer is not someone who knows how to write- but how to rewrite

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.

Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others. When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it.

The problem with fiction, it has to be plausible. That's not true with non-fiction.

Beyond each corner, new directions lie in wait.

A novel is like a bow, and the violin that produces the sound is the reader's soul.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

...what makes a story unique is not necessarily the information in the story but what the writer chooses to put in or leave out.(pg. 146-147)

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.

I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.

One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up.

The elasticity of imagination and compassion is what writing and reading promote.

The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite.

Writing about people helps us to understand them, and understanding them helps us to accept them as part of ourselves.

Writing crystallizes thought and thought produces action.