#writ

How do I know what I think until I see what I say? ↗

— E.M. Forster

#e-m-forster #essay #fiction #writing #fiction

Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name. ↗

— Vladimir Nabokov

#fame #lolita #names #obscure #writers

Don't bury personal obsessions. Capitalize on them. ``The connection between personal obsession and the work you do is the most important thing.'' -- Be yourself. ``Singularity is what you need.'' -- Avoid self-censorship: ``We are very self-critical in a way that can be very destructive. In our culture there are voices in our head which have taught us to say, `Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you.' Don't ever think about anybody peering over your shoulder.'' -- Don't be afraid to show off, even if you think, ``I'm very close to making a complete fool of myself.'' -- Don't be afraid to entertain. ``I want to entertain. I don't want to lose people. I feel responsible as I write to give people the best time I can.'' -- ``Love your failures'' instead of beating yourself up over them. -- ``Learn to love the process'' of writing. -- Just do it. Barker likes something director Stanley Kubrick said: ``If you want to make a film, pick up a camera. ↗

— Clive Barker

#writing #love

In front of me 327 pages of the manuscript [Master and Margarita] (about 22 chapters). The most important remains - editing, and it's going to be hard. I will have to pay close attention to details. Maybe even re-write some things... 'What's its future?' you ask? I don't know. Possibly, you will store the manuscript in one of the drawers, next to my 'killed' plays, and occasionally it will be in your thoughts. Then again, you don't know the future. My own judgement of the book is already made and I think it truly deserves being hidden away in the darkness of some chest. [Bulgakov from Moscow to his wife on June 15 1938] ↗

— Mikhail Bulgakov

#letter #master-and-margarita #russia #samizdat #writing

Political writing in our time consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together like the pieces of a child's Meccano set. It is the unavoidable result of self-censorship. To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox. ↗

— George Orwell

#orthodoxy #orwell #politics #writing #censorship

When one writer tries to silence another, he silences every writer-and in the end he also silences himself. ↗

— David Leavitt

#leavitt #quote #writer #censorship

If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write! ↗

— Jackie Collins

#writing #writers-on-writing

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#writing #mankind

The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand. ↗

— Wisława Szymborska

#revenge

There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments, but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path. ↗

— Anton Chekhov

#failure #rejection #writing #disappointment