"A man is not learned until he can read, write and swim."
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Writing quotes
Writing
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Writing quotes (page 47 of 1537)
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"I like to borrow a metaphor from the great poet and mystic Rumi who talks about living like a drawing compass. One leg of the compass is static. It is fixed and rooted in a certain spot. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a huge wide circle around the first one, constantly moving. Just like that, one part of my writing is based in Istanbul. It has strong local roots. Yet at the same time the other part travels the whole wide world, feeling connected to several cities, cultures, and peoples."
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"The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul--BOOKS."
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"Just write. It doesn't matter what you write. Just sit at your desk and write."
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"Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better."
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"Never write about a place until you're away from it, because that gives you perspective"
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"The biographies of great artists make it abundantly clear that the creative urge is often so imperious that it battens on their humanity and yokes everything to the service of the work, even at the cost of health and ordinary human happiness. The unborn work in the psyche of the artist is a force of nature that achieves its end either with tyrannical might or with the subtle cunning of nature herself, quite regardless of the personal fate of the man who is its vehicle."
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"We can carry the burden of hurt throughout our lives. We can make the hurt that we have experienced the defining aspect of our stories of ourselves. That means that somebody else gets to say who we are, somebody else gets to decide how we feel, and somebody else gets to decide how we see the world. Forgiveness not only frees us from the burden of someone else's opinion of us, but it allows us the opportunity to really write a story of ourselves that we can love, enjoy, relish, and live into."
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"You can't write nothing that ain't real."
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"During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience."
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"When I write with Maiden, then I write only with the guys in Maiden, we don't do songs from outside people."
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"If you want to write, keep cats."
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"I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live."
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"It is in the movements of emotional crisis that human beings reveal themselves most accurately."
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"Try to be original in your play and as clever as possible; but don't be afraid to show yourself foolish; we must have freedom of thinking, and only he is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things."
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"Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes."
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"What comes forth from you as an artist cannot be controlled. But you have responsibilities as a global citizen. Your history dictates your duty. And by writing about black people, you are not limiting yourself. The experiences of African-Americans are as wide open as God's closet."
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"I write for myself and my goal is bringing that world and that experience of black Americans to life on the stage and giving it a space there."
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"To be the kind of writer you want to be, you must first be the kind of thinker you want to be."
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"I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn."
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