#writers

There are plenty of clever young writers. But there is too much genius, not enough talent. ↗

— J. B. Priestley

#enough #genius #much #plenty #talent

To return to antiquity [in literature]: that has been done. To return to the Middle Ages: that too has been done. Remains the present day. But the ground is shaky: so where can you set the foundations? An answer to this question must be found if one is to produce anything vital and hence lasting. All this disturbs me so much that I no longer like to be spoken to about it. ↗

— Gustave Flaubert

#writers #writing #age

Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy. ...this book...is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up. ↗

— Stephen King

#writers-on-writing #writing-advice #writing-from-the-heart #writing-philosophy #art

Everything you invent is true: you can be sure of that. Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry. ↗

— Julian Barnes

#creativity #poetry #poets #reality #writers

He possessed the logic of all good intentions and a knowledge of all the tricks of his trade, and yet he never succeeded at anything, because he believed too much in the impossible. Surprising? Why so? He was forever in the act of conceiving it! ↗

— Charles Baudelaire

#creativity #failure #fantasy #impossible #writers

The world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#christianity #integrity #literature #writers #art

While art thrives on the blazing colours of scandal, literature blossoms on the dark soil of tragedy. ↗

— E.A. Bucchianeri

#artists #arts-and-humanities #books #classics #creativity

Fear is felt by writers at every level. Anxiety accompanies the first word they put on paper and the last. ↗

— Ralph Keyes

#courage #creativity #fear #risks #writers

Relate comic things in pompous fashion. Irregularity, in other words the unexpected, the surprising, the astonishing, are essential to and characteristic of beauty. Two fundamental literary qualities: supernaturalism and irony. The blend of the grotesque and the tragic are attractive to the mind, as is discord to blasé ears. Imagine a canvas for a lyrical, magical farce, for a pantomime, and translate it into a serious novel. Drown the whole thing in an abnormal, dreamy atmosphere, in the atmosphere of great days … the region of pure poetry. ↗

— Charles Baudelaire

#creativity #fantasy #grotesque #irony #novel

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlighenment and comfort at top speed ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#beauty