Writing Quotes

I could write songs about politics, but I'm conscious of not writing songs that sound the same as the ones I wrote 30 years ago.

You learn a lot, writing fiction.

I got out of college and I went to get my master's in creative writing at San Francisco State. I was working as an actor at the Actor's Workshop, being abused as a intern.

I, as a young guy getting out of music school, I didn't like the prospect of spending my life writing music for about 200 people.

Anxiety is not only an inevitable part of the writing process but a necessary part. If you’re not scared, you’re not writing.

I've been writing songs since I was 14 years old, and that's my true love.

The dirty secret of art is you don't have to show people your bad writing. That's what we have the delete key for.

In this world of doubt, one thing is certain for me; that I will go on writing songs up to and - I hope, through heavenly means or diabolical - beyond the day I die.

Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader's mind - -vividly, forcefully.

I'd like to become better at writing music by continuing to study it.

Writing songs for other people was never the goal for me.

I've always regretted the fact that I've never formally studied and learned the mechanics of writing music.

Baudelaire's L'Héautontimorouménos was long seen to be a sexual sadomasochistic poem, it is now generally accepted that the poem is about writing poetry.

Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as 'good' and other sorts as 'bad' is fearful behavior.

Suffering has as much right to be expressed as a martyr has to cry out. So it may have been false to say that writing poetry after Auschwitz is impossible.

I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it.

Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else.

I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.

So many (too many) books are published every year, and it seems everyone is writing a book. Perhaps we should all be reading more and writing less!

I love the secrecy of writing fiction. When I write a novel, I don't tell anybody what I'm doing. I'm living in my private world. And it's a great sensation.

...after a night spent writing poetry, one is almost happy to hear the milkman at the door.

Rewrite and revise. Do not be afraid to seize what you have and cut it to ribbons ... Good writing means good revising.

The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.

Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.

Writing a book is an adventure.

So perhaps the best thing to do is to stop writing Introductions and get on with the book.

For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.

I had casually rented an apartment that cost $75 a month because I expected my writing to pay my way.

If you know somebody is going to be awfully annoyed by something you write, that's obviously very satisfying, and if they howl with rage or cry, that's honey.

I've always found it pretty difficult to write a happy song.

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue. But when I'm writing, the way the words sound is as important to me as what they mean.

Well, I must tell you I write the scripts very close to the bone. So I'm writing episode seven now and couldn't tell you what happens in episode eight.

I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.

I'm always writing lyrics. I have so many lyrics on so many stray pieces of paper. Everywhere.

I want to do wardrobe. I want to do hair. I want to do makeup. I want to do writing. I want to do directing. I want to do all of it. I like it. And I want to do producing.

I could write shorter sermons but when I get started I'm too lazy to stop

Lyrically I write based on my past experiences or things I wish to experience. Pain inspires me as does joy.

I play in a band, I write songs, I sing, you know, perform on stage.

You write to find out what you believe.

I am never writing a breakup record again, by the way. I'm done with being a bitter witch.

I can't write another breakup record. That would be a real cliche.

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties.

Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write - no matter how bad they are - get recorded.

Large meadows are lovely for picnics and romping, but they are for the lighter feelings. Meadows do not make me want to write.

I wanted to try to write songs on the piano to get a different flavor.

If I were to write anything at all, it would turn out to be nothing but talk about movies. In other words, take 'myself,' subtract 'movies,' and the result is 'zero.'

I'm crushed by the responsibility of writing a satirical book.

Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.

My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.

Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?