#writing

A word only writes Its night and rides Its dream. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #dream #literature #literature-quotes #night

Everyone should read, we say, but we act as if only those with special talent should write. ↗

— Roy Peter Clark

#reading #writing #education

Everywhere I go, I am asked if I think university stifles writers. My opinion is that it doesn't stifle enough of them. ↗

— Flannery O'Connor

#humour #literary-criticism #writing #education

Disappointed in his hope that I would give him the fictional equivalent of “One Hundred Ways of Cooking Eggs” or the “Carnet de la Ménagère,” he began to cross-examine me about my methods of “collecting material.” Did I keep a notebook or a daily journal? Did I jot down thoughts and phrases in a cardindex? Did I systematically frequent the drawing-rooms of the rich and fashionable? Or did I, on the contrary, inhabit the Sussex downs? or spend my evenings looking for “copy” in East End gin-palaces? Did I think it was wise to frequent the company of intellectuals? Was it a good thing for a writer of novels to try to be well educated, or should he confine his reading exclusively to other novels? And so on. I did my best to reply to these questions — as non-committally, of course, as I could. And as the young man still looked rather disappointed, I volunteered a final piece of advice, gratuitously. “My young friend,” I said, “if you want to be a psychological novelist and write about human beings, the best thing you can do is to keep a pair of cats.” And with that I left him. I hope, for his own sake, that he took my advice. ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#psychology #writing #education

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. ↗

— Stephen King

#writing #king

It seemed to me then that to have published a book - any kind of book - would be the greatest possible happiness I could ask from life. ↗

— Christopher Isherwood

#education

Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it. ↗

— Ernest Hemingway

#death

Write as though your life depended on it. ↗

— Jill Telford

#life #life-changing #writing #writing-advice #change

In stories, when someone behaves uncharacteristically, we take it as a meaningful, even pivotal moment. If we are surprised again and again, we have to keep changing our minds, or give up and disbelieve the writer. In real life, if people think they know you well enough not only to say, 'It's Tuesday, Amy must be helping out at the library today,' but well enough to say to the librarian, after you've left the building, 'You know, Amy just loves reading to the four-year-olds, I think it's been such a comfort for her since her little boy died'—if they know you like that, you can do almost anything where they can't see you, and when they hear about it, they will, as we do, simply disbelieve the narrator. ↗

— Amy Bloom

#storytelling #writing #change

I finished the [blog] post reflecting on the fact that, despite all the changes in my life, maybe I wasn't so different after all. If I typed it, maybe I could believe it, too. ↗

— Stephanie Nielson

#blogging #change #hope #life #time