Quotes by category:Writing

Well, I always say that the two things I was most disastrous at in my life, being a teenager and being a wife, were the two things I really wound up cashing in on when I was writing fluffy magazine pieces.

teenager writing two

I have been accused of being a Pollyanna, but I think there are plenty of people dealing with the darker side of human nature, and if I am going to write about people who are kind and generous and loving and thoughtful, so what? In my life I have met astonishingly good people.

thoughtful writing thinking

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write... by Ann Patchett

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.

want writing book

Our friendship was like our writing in some ways. It was the only thing that was interesting about our otherwise dull lives. We were better off when we were together. Together we were a small society of ambition and high ideals. We were tender and patient and kind. We were not like the world at all.

dull-life ambition writing

I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need... by Ann Patchett

I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.

writing book thinking

Learn to write by writing by Ann Patchett

Learn to write by writing

I don't write for an audience, I don't think whether my book will sell, I don't sell it before I finish writing it.

writing book thinking

That's the way I work. I get it all plotted in my mind, and then... by Ann Patchett

That's the way I work. I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down.

mind writing way

If I was a waitress, I was too tired at the end of the day when I... by Ann Patchett

If I was a waitress, I was too tired at the end of the day when I came home to try to write.

tired home writing

I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book.

writing character book

I tend to keep my ideas in my head. When I write something down in a notebook it's never centralized. There are too many notebooks floating around, but maybe that's a good thing.

notebook writing ideas

You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are on... by Ann Patchett

You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person.

political busy writing

You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person t... by Ann Patchett

You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend.

bad-friend husband writing

Anytime you write about priests or cops, they're hot-button profe... by Ann Patchett

Anytime you write about priests or cops, they're hot-button professions.

buttons hot writing

I'm very comfortable writing. by Ann Patchett

I'm very comfortable writing.

comfortable writing

When I began writing, it was a cosmic thing: Inspiration! Wham! Short spurts of time when I felt out of touch with reality, temporarily insane and the result: a song!

inspiration writing song

This is also an execellent time to ask this question: Did I get l... by Ann Reed

This is also an execellent time to ask this question: Did I get lazy and go for a quick rhyme?

rhyme lazy writing

What's interesting about songs where the writer is genuinely in love with words is that it's easy to read the lyrics like a poem.

writing song interesting

Writing a song isn't that hard. Writing a good song is difficult. Let's face it, we're faced with taking a complex feeling or event, making words rhyme and saying exactly what we want them to say in a short amount of time. ...the primary reason for keeping it short and to the point is to be certain that you're not boring your audience.

feelings writing song

When I write I am the real me. by Ann Rinaldi

When I write I am the real me.

real-me real writing