Saturday, December 01, 2012

Writers on the process of writing

This is a small, lively, and enriching collection of quotes on the actual process of writing as experienced by some of the most popular authors past and present.

“Write drunk;        edit sober.”
— Ernest Hemingway












“When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another.” 
— John Steinbeck 

“The only good writing is intuitive writing. It would be a big bore if you knew where it was going. It has to be exciting, instantaneous and it has to be a surprise. Then it all comes blurting out and it’s beautiful. I've had a sign by my typewriter for 25 years now which reads, DON’T THINK!” 
— Ray Bradbury, The Writer’s Digest, February 1976

“I hate writing, I love having written.”
— Dorothy Parker 











“The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.” 
— E.B. White in The New York Times 








“I had a closing line for Something Happened before I began writing the book. It was 'I am a cow.' For six years I thought that was good. I had it on one of my three-by-five notecards. Then I wasn't all that happy with it, and finally I discarded it. But it seemed good at the time, and besides, I can’t start writing until I have a closing line.” 
— Joseph Heller, The Paris Review

“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.”
— Flannery O'Connor 















“I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it…” 
— Elmore Leonard 




“A word after a word after a word is power.” 
— Margaret Atwood








“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.” 
— Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country 











“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” 
— Jack Kerouac









“If I waited till I felt like writing, I'd never write at all. The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.” 
— Anne Tyler 


“I've always preferred writing in longhand. I've always written first drafts in longhand.” 
— John Irving














“I don't speak to Gerry (husband). I write for three to four hours, not answering the phone, not getting out of my night clothes.” 
— Alice Munro 





“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”
— Stephen King,     On Writing






Note: I have tried hard to find the original source for the images of the authors used in this post but couldn’t get them all. Here are the ones I did:

Ray Bradbury: NASA/JPL-Caltech
E.B. White: The New Yorker
Joseph Heller, Elmore Leonard, Margaret Atwood, Jack Kerouac, and John Irving: Wikimedia Commons

10 comments:

  1. Some great quotes there Prashant - I think Parker's is the one that comes closest to summing up my own feelings ...

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    1. Thanks, Sergio. I know what you mean. Every time I sit down to write something I wish I'd already written it.

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  2. I particularly like Bradbury and Leonard's quotes.

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    1. Charles, there is a school of thought that believes in writing without a plan, kind of spontaneous writing where the words flow as soon as you start. I like dialogue and description in equal measure.

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  3. A very interesting post. I love quotes on all subjects. I buy books of quotes and then I don't read them all.

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    1. Thank you, Tracy. I often find one quote more profound than the other irrespective of the subject area. There are some really good ones in the field of literature.

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  4. Nicely done. The photos are wonderful. The Vonnegut remark is cheeky. Does O'Connor's remark seem a little ominous, or is it just because she said it?

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    1. Thanks again, Ron. I like using black-and-white photos. I find them more appealing. The Vonnegut quote is well known though John Irving, one of his most famous students, uses the semi-colon in his fiction.

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  5. love this, I think Kurt Vonnegut's my favourite.

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    1. Parrish Lantern, thank you. Vonnegut's one of my favourite authors. I particularly liked the way he wrote.

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