Quotes by category:Writing

We are writers. We danced with words, as children, in what became familiar patterns. The words became our friends and our companions, and without even saying it aloud, a thought danced with them: I can do this. This is who I am.

who-i-am writing children

Reporters are not paid to operate in retrospect. Because when news begins to solidify into current events and finally harden intohistory, it is the stories we didn't write, the questions we didn't ask that prove far, far more damaging than the ones we did.

retrospect stories writing

The truth is that when you're writing a novel you're really living in it; you're living in the house, and you're living in the town.

towns house writing

I do a lot of mental work before I ever start writing. by Anna Quindlen

I do a lot of mental work before I ever start writing.

People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.

block writing people

The age of technology has both revived the use of writing and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace. Emails are letters, after all, more lasting than phone calls, even if many of them r 2 cursory 4 u.

technology spiritual writing

I don't have to listen to the Gospel on Sunday to know the stories of the New Testament. They inform so much of what I write that they're practically like a news scrim that goes through my brain 24/7.

sunday brain writing

You write to suit some sense in yourself and trust that that will resonate with a certain wider readership.

suits certain writing

I'm boggled by the idea of being an only child. I know nothing at all (I'm happy to say) about having had a cold and withholding mother, about being divorced. The more I've been writing novels, each novel I've written has become successively less grounded in anything approaching autobiography.

mother writing children

Writing seems to be the only profession people imagine you can do... by Anna Quindlen

Writing seems to be the only profession people imagine you can do by thinking about doing it.

writing people thinking

I can't begin to predict how news will be delivered to readers in, say, 100 years. But I do know one thing that hasn't changed: Whatever the delivery system, whether it's a magazine, book or blog, people like vivid writing, strong stories and credible people. So while the venue is changing rapidly, human nature isn't, which I find soothing.

strong writing book

When I write a novel, I have what I think of as an icon that helps get me into the world of the book.

writing book thinking

Uncontrollable consumerism has become a watchword of our culture despite regular and compelling calls for its end. The United States has more malls than high schools; Americans spend more time shopping than reading. ... Some of the most insightful writing about the American character over the nation's history has been about neither freedom nor democracy but about the crazed impulse to acquire things.

reading writing school

the more humdrum aspects of life do not make for gripping reading. To render them compelling, a writer must describe the universal in eloquent and evocative prose. Alas, Frey's writing suggests that this was not an option, and he came up with something else.

gripping reading writing

It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. by Anna Quindlen

It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit.

crafts spirit writing

I'm writing this memoir from the perspective of somebody who's prosperous and has means. Having said that, one of the things that I think I discovered about those additional years is that I don't think they really are added to the end of life.

writing mean thinking

Jane Austen may not be the best writer, but she certainly writes about the best people. And by that I mean people just like me.

writing mean people

I can't think of anything to write about except families. They are a metaphor for every other part of society.

family writing thinking

I don't really read what people write about me. Someone gives my novel one star; are they a troll? Are they someone who hates my politics and so has decided to do that?

hate stars writing

Novels are usually built on conflict, sometimes very, very difficult conflict. It's why men write war novels - because there you go, there's the conflict writ large.

writing men war