Quotes by Writing I think growing up in a small town, the kind of people I met in my small town, they still haunt me. I find myself writing about them over and over again. Annie Baker growing-upwritingthinking For me, being a good creative writing teacher is actually kind of being a good therapist. The line is very porous - you can also be a creepy guru/abusive therapist, too, so you have to be very careful. But it feels really important to me. Annie Baker creativewritingteacher I was 22 and stopped writing plays, and I didn't start again until I was 25. I was writing badly. In college, I attempted to write these more conventional plays, but the theater I loved was downtown experimental theater. I didn't feel like I could do that either. It didn't occur to me to do my own thing. Annie Baker collegeplaywriting Writing is my primary way of expressing myself. Annie Baker primarieswritingway Isaiah is by far the finest and least objectionable of the seventeen prophets whose supposed productions form the latter part of the Old Testament. A distinctly higher moral tone appears in the writings called by his name, and this is especially noticeable in the 'Second Isaiah,' who wrote after the Babylonish captivity. Annie Besant captivitynameswriting My first serious attempts at writing were made in 1868, and I took up two very different lines of composition; I wrote some short stories of a very flimsy type, and also a work of a much more ambitious character, 'The Lives of the Black Letter Saints.' Annie Besant writingcharactertwo One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. . . . Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. Annie Dillard playwritingbook Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality? Annie Dillard patientdyingwriting Write about winter in the summer. Describe Norway as Ibsen did, from a desk in Italy; describe Dublin as James Joyce did, from a desk in Paris. Willa Cather wrote her prairie novels in New York City; Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn in Hartford, Connecticut. Recently, scholars learned that Walt Whitman rarely left his room. Annie Dillard new-yorksummerwriting The secret is not to write about what you love best, but about what you, alone, love at all. Annie Dillard what-you-lovesecretwriting He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know. Annie Dillard carefulknowswriting I do not so much write a book as sit up with it, as a dying friend. I hold its hand and hope it will get better. Annie Dillard writingbookhands At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. Annie Dillard gracewritinglooks I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do not read in the first place. Annie Dillard strugglewritingbook Write about winter in the summer. Annie Dillard summerwritingwinter The reader's ear must adjust down from loud life to the subtle, imaginary sounds of the written word. An ordinary reader picking up a book can't yet hear a thing; it will take half an hour to pick up the writing's modulations, its ups and downs and louds and softs. Annie Dillard soundwritingbook Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark. Annie Dillard workwritingmemories The more you read, the more you will write. The better the stuff you read, the better the stuff you will write. Annie Dillard stuffwriting When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a wood carver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year. Annie Dillard realwritingyears It's a little silly to finally learn how to write at this age. But I long ago realized I was secretly sincere. Annie Dillard long-agosillywriting«90919293949596979899100»
