Quotes by category:Writing

CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager.

target writing lying

GOOSE, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These, by some occult process of nature, are penetrated and suffused with various degrees of the bird's intellectual energies and emotional character, so that when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a person called an "author," there results a very fair and accurate transcript of the fowl's thought and feeling. The difference in geese, as discovered by this ingenious method, is considerable: many are found to have only trivial and insignificant powers, but some are seen to be very great geese indeed.

writing character science

Scribbler, n. A professional writer whose views are antagonistic... by Ambrose Bierce

Scribbler, n. A professional writer whose views are antagonistic to one's own.

A popular writer writes about what people think. A wise writer of... by Ambrose Bierce

A popular writer writes about what people think. A wise writer offers them something to think about.

wise writing thinking

LUMINARY, One who throws light upon a subject; as an editor by no... by Ambrose Bierce

LUMINARY, One who throws light upon a subject; as an editor by not writing about it.

editors light writing

A popular author is one who writes what the people think. Genius invites them to think something else.

writing people thinking

A malefactor who atones for making your writing nonsense by permitting the compositor to make it unintelligible.

nonsense writing

BLANK-VERSE, n. Unrhymed iambic pentameters - the most difficult kind of English verse to write acceptably; a kind, therefore, much affected by those who cannot acceptably write any kind.

blank kindness writing

I state the threefold purpose of my travels in Arabia: to see the country, to write about it and to be of some service to its people and their cause - that is what brought me from beyond the seas, from America.

writing country america

Ever hear the expression "write what you know?" My version says "write what you want to know." If you want to know about the history of Spain, write about the history of Spain - fiction or nonfiction. If your fascinated by the old west, maybe your character lives there.

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

expression writing character

Writing is an outlet, but it’s not an outlet of escape. People keep a journal when they want to escape. I write to rub my face in it.

want writing people

Of course you have memories, and these memories are convincing. But it's really at the moment when I write them down - when I write about my relationship with that Japanese boy in Ni d'Eve, Ni d'Adam - that they reach a degree of reality which is incandescent, that I've really conquered a story, understood it and feel that it is really part of me.

writing memories reality

It's while writing that suddenly a point of view appears: 'So, that's what I really thought about this thing'. Then it feels part of me.

amelie views writing

Luckily I haven't fallen into the trap, which has claimed so many writers, of living from day to day thinking 'Ah, I'll write a book about that.'

writing book thinking

I need to be very hungry all the time. I need to be very hungry t... by Amelie Nothomb

I need to be very hungry all the time. I need to be very hungry to write.

amelie writing needs

A compelling and important story of First Word War Scotland, a time when women redefined the word hope as the world was losing its innocence. Andrea MacPherson writes beautifully, balancing the lives of her characters between history and the poetry of gesture, secrets and love.

writing character war

A life spent writing has taught me to be wary of words. Those that seem clearest are often the most treacherous.

treacherous taught writing

As a young woman, Ama Ata Aidoo the freedom fighter vowed never to write love stories. Let’s delight in the fact that over the years she has changed her mind about the value of writing about love, as her rich edited collection of highly original and diverse ‘African Love Stories’ demonstrates. She has traveled her path and had the courage to grow and change while retaining her deep commitment to Pan- Africanism. Love flourishes, after all is said and done.

writing commitment years

What ultimately happened is that my country had a war. I think it would be extraordinary, as a writer, not to want to write about that.

writing war country

To write poetry, like sincere poetry, it is like performing heart surgery on yourself without anesthesia...in public...You are peeling back layers. You are dissecting yourself...You do not know what they [the audience] is going to do when you reach into yourself and rip out your organs to be displayed

rip heart writing