#craft

A writer needs to ingest love to be passionate. Passion is a metabolite of love, and good writing is an active metabolite of passion. ↗

— Roman Payne

#love #loving #metabolite #passion #payne

I really learned how to write from Robert Louis Stevenson, Anthony Trollope, and de Maupassant. ↗

— Louis L'Amour

#writing-craft #writing-life #life

At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that — the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, train himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance. That is, to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is ... curiosity to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does. And if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got that or not. [Press conference, University of Virginia, May 20, 1957] ↗

— William Faulkner

#craft #craftsmanship #creative-writing #learning-by-doing #talent

Show me you care about our common tongue. Bring to your [writing] passion, deeply informed by knowledge of your subject. Stay me, not with apples and flagons, but with wit and grace, humor and intense caring about your discipline. Don't slack, don't give it a lick and a promise, don't make it evident that you posted what was 'good enough for government work,' don't try and fake it. Give it your best, your all, not for pence, but for the love of the craft. Do these things, as these writers and scores I have not named do, bring to your work your self, your heart, your voice, motherly or youthful, lawyerly or priestly, conservative or liberal, it matters not. Do this and I and hundreds of others will return again and again to your work, not merely because we may have a burning need for a new printer or an abiding interest in college newspapers or what have you, but because we wish to spend time with your mind and voice. ↗

— Markham Shaw Pyle

#craft #passion #writing #love

I owe all my originality, such as it is, to my determination not to be a literary man. Instead of belonging to a literary club I belong to a municipal council. Instead of drinking and discussing authors and reviews, I sit on committees with capable practical greengrocers and bootmakers... Keep away from books and from men who get their ideas from books, and your own books will always be fresh. ↗

— George Bernard Shaw

#men

You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do. ↗

— Steve Martin

#bit #compulsive #craft #want #whatever

And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography. ↗

— Nicolas Roeg

#become #cinematography #craft #director #how

We were all flying around up and down the coast near Dunkirk looking for enemy aircraft which seemed also to be milling around with no particular cohesion. ↗

— Douglas Bader

#also #around #coast #cohesion #down

Just give me a good role that allows me to hone my craft, and I am a pretty happy camper. ↗

— Jimmy Smits

#am #camper #craft #give #give me

Though the general principles of statecraft have survived the rise and fall of empires, every increase in knowledge has brought about changes in the political, economic, and social structure. ↗

— John Boyd Orr

#brought #changes #economic #empires #every