Writing/Writer Quotes

[Ken.Hagdal]

“My trouble is insomnia. If I had always slept properly, I'd never have written a line.”
― Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Originally Posted by kennyc

since it's his birthday:

what matters most is how well you walk through the fire
- Charles Bukowski

One of my favorite authors.

[kennyc]

Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club.
- Jack London

[kennyc]

"We slip into a dream, forgetting the room we’re sitting in, forgetting it’s lunchtime or time to go to work. We recreate, with minor and for the most part unimportant changes, the vivid and continuous dream the writer worked out in his mind (revising and revising until he got it right) and captured in language so that other human beings, whenever they feel like it, may open the book and dream that dream again."
-- John Gardner

[kennyc]

The historical truth is a fiction. OK, I did whatever I could to find out what happened from
surviving friends, family and media, but that is simply a skeleton upon which the story is draped.
This is the unmasking of the myth, and, as Jean Cocteau put it: “Man seeks to escape himself
in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw
into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.”
I wanted to go beyond a recreation of the past to discover meaning in the degradation of my
addiction experience. The past is another country and not my prime interest. It’s more what
the past can tell us about how we deal with the present moment.
- William Pryor

(writing about: Survival of the Coolest: A Darwins Death Defying Journey into the Interior of Addiction)

[Marcus365]

The poet, the writers duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage, honor and hope, and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice that have been the glory of the past. William Faulkner

[MichelleLouring]

“When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: ‘House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”
― Neil Gaiman

[GA Russell]

This is a great thread! Thanks guys!

[Lemurion]

I'm reminded of Robert Newton Peck.

"Fiction is folks."

[gmw]

"I was going to write like James Branch Cabell, which would have taken a lot of doing. Before that, I was going to write like Rafael Sabatini, and like Talbot Munday, and like Rider Haggard, and even, God help us, like Edgar Rice Burroughs. . . . Eventually I decided to write like H. Beam Piper, only a little better. I am still trying."
— H. Beam Piper, The double:bill Symposium interview


(I got that from here, I presume it's authentic.)

[gmw]

Neil Gaiman often has interesting things to say. On this 2004 link is the fairly well known quote:

There's no magic answer, I'm afraid. This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard.

But I also found this bit further down, which strikes a chord with me at the moment (more in another thread):

Most people can start a short story or a novel. If you're a writer, you can finish them. Finish enough of them, and you may be good enough to be publishable. Good luck.

[jandrew]

"I worked in the Hallmark public relations department for a man named Conrad Knickerbocker, the public relations manager, who had already begun publishing book reviews and fiction. After I got to know Knick a little, I asked him timidly how you become a writer. . . . He said, "Rhodes, you apply ass to chair." I call that solid gold advice the Knickerbocker Rule."

From: How To Write: Advice and Reflections (Richard Rhodes, 1996)

[ApK]

Gaiman's quote above reminds me of the supposed Strauss quote about playing the piano: "You just hit the right keys at the right time and the thing plays itself."

Regarding the Knickerbocker rule and advice from Gaiman above, sure it's good advice, but so is "get out of bed each morning" or "eat your vegetables." It's a bit obvious and has nothing particular to do with the topic of writing. Sure it's important to be reminded that doing anything takes applied effort, but that could come from any successful person in any field.
If I were to attend a writing workshop with an author I admire, and I only got advice like "work hard" I'd ask for my money back.

I fully understand that an interview is not a workshop, authors are not our personal writing teachers, and they are not obligated to tell anything. And indeed, whatever they might have to say can give you interesting insight into the person, but when ever I hear that kind of "eat your veggies" advice when I was hoping to actually get some insight into the craft at the foot of a master, I'm disappointed.

[jandrew]

Originally Posted by ApK

but when ever I hear that kind of "eat your veggies" advice when I was hoping to actually get some insight into the craft at the foot of a master, I'm disappointed.

There is no secret ingredient in Secret Ingredient Soup.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by ApK

[...]If I were to attend a writing workshop with an author I admire, and I only got advice like "work hard" I'd ask for my money back.[...]

Sure, there is an element of "you get what you pay for" in all this. But the reason why this rule comes up repeatedly is that it is the first and biggest stumbling block of would-be writers, and it is very often the answer to many questions regarding writing: How do you get past writer's block? How do you improve your writing? Where do you come up with your ideas? How do you finish a story?

Even the quote I posted earlier from Stephen Donaldson (about giving himself permission to write badly) boils down to this oh-so basic first rule. Yes, it is basic, yes, it applies to all such skills, and no, you wouldn't want to pay for the advice. But until it sinks in and you start using it, no writing workshop is going to be much use to you.

[mncowboy]

Another one from Mark Twain:
"I can't stand a man who can only spell a word one way!"