Writing

Anais Nin Writer, Diarist

Writing

"My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living."

Writing Life Ideas

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Andre Gide Novelist

Writing

"The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes."

Writing Beautiful Madness

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Anne Lamott Author, Essayist

Writing

"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head."

Writing Voice Effort

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Anne Sexton Poet, Author

Writing

"All I am is the trick of words writing themselves."

Writing Tricks

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Anne Sexton Poet, Author

Writing

"When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do."

Writing Inspirational Born

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Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer

Writing

"If you look at anything long enough, say just that wall in front of you - it will come out of that wall."

Writing Long Wall

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Anton Chekhov Playwright, Short Story Writer

Writing

"To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones."

Writing Play Passion

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Antonin Artaud Playwright, Actor, Theorist

Writing

"All writing is garbage. People who come out of nowhere to try and put into words any part of what goes on in their minds are pigs."

People Writing Pigs

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Aristotle Philosopher

Writing

"Speech is the representation of the mind, and writing is the representation of speech."

Writing Mind Speech

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Aristotle Philosopher

Writing

"The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances."

Writing Eye Genius

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Arthur Schopenhauer Philosopher

Writing

"I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant's works, the sacred writings of the Hindus, and Plato."

Writing Development Plato

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Alice Walker Novelist, Poet

Writing

"There's an ecstatic side to writing. It's like jazz. It just has a life."

Writing Sides Jazz

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W. Somerset Maugham Novelist, Playwright

Writing

"Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to."

Writing Looks Sound

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Washington Irving Author

Writing

"I consider a story merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials."

Writing Stories Materials

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William Faulkner Novelist, Poet, Playwright

Writing

"If I had not existed, someone else would have written me, Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, all of us."

Writing Written Dostoyevsky

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Vaclav Klaus Politician, Economist

Writing

"I also helped write the five-page statement of principles that Civic Forum issued in late November. That was the first public expression of what the new government wanted to do."

Writing Government Expression

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Umberto Eco Writer, Philosopher, Literary Critic

Writing

"All the stories I would like to write persecute me. When I am in my chamber, it seems as if they are all around me, like little devils, and while one tugs at my ear, another tweaks my nose, and each says to me, 'Sir, write me, I am beautiful."

Writing Beautiful Devil

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Ursula K. Le Guin Author, Poet, Essayist

Writing

"It had never occurred to me before that music and thinking are so much alike. In fact you could say music is another way of thinking, or maybe thinking is another kind of music."

Thinking Writing Way

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Victor Hugo Novelist, Poet

Writing

"I write with one hand, but I fight with both."

Writing Hands Fighting

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Ralph Ellison Novelist, Essayist

Writing

"The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike."

Writing Past Shadow

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