"With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs."
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Writing quotes
Writing
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Writing quotes (page 117 of 1537)
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"I am never as clear about any matter as when I have finished writing about it."
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"With many readers, brilliancy of style passes for affluence of thought; they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable gold mines under ground."
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"It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in."
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"By then The Kite Runner had become quite successful and I found myself in a position that I had always dreamed of my whole life, which was to write for a living."
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"I entered the literary world, really, from outside. My entire background has been in sciences; I was a biology major in college, then went to medical school. I've never had any formal training in writing. So what I know about writing, I know from my own instincts, and whatever the narrative voice is in my own head."
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"It is a good thing to write for the amusement of the public, but it is a far higher and nobler thing to write for their instruction, their profit, their actual and tangible benefit."
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"Write without pay until somebody offers to pay."
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"Money's really - you know, song writing, yes, there's money to be made and things like that. But really, when you talk about the real money, you talk about touring. No question."
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"When I write, I disturb. When I show a film, I disturb. When I exhibit my painting, I disturb, and I disturb if I don't. I have a knack for disturbing."
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"I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself."
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"This desire [to write] is rather strange all the same and is not without a certain "cracked" quality."
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"The trick in writing children's books is to set up danger, mystery and excitement on page one. Force the kid to turn the page . . . Then in the middle of each chapter there's a dramatic point of excitement, and at chapter's end, a cliffhanger."
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"I couldn't run a tight schedule, and if you're any good at teaching, you get sucked dry because you like your students and you're trying to help them, but you don't have any time left to write yourself."
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"Be a collector of good ideas. Keep a journal. If you hear a good idea, capture it, write it down. Don't trust your memory."
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"That to me is the way any good romantic would look at his life: Live it first, then write it down before you go."
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"I remember the excruciating school task of writing a three-page term paper. But, oh, that feeling when I was done! I think I drive myself for that feeling of accomplishment."
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"Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past."
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"To exclude from positions of trust and command all those below the age of 44 would have kept Jefferson from writing the Declaration of Independence, Washington from commanding the Continental Army, Madison from fathering the Constitution, Hamilton from serving as secretary of the treasury, Clay from being elected speaker of the House and Christopher Columbus from discovering America."
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"This is what I love about novels - both reading them and writing them. They jump into the abyss to be with you where you are."
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