The Shadow had no imagination. He neither looked at naked women nor thought of ridding the world of dictators like Hitler or Mussolini. E. L. Doctorow More Quotes by E. L. Doctorow More Quotes From E. L. Doctorow Movies are too literal. E. L. Doctorow literal movie Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing - none of that is writing. Writing is writing. Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow fog writing night Congress is so beholden to the money that any solution in the general interest will be frustrated and subverted by the corporate interests who feel they will be damaged by progress, fair play and justice. E. L. Doctorow frustrated play justice Poems have ideas. The ideas of poems come out of their emotions and their emotions are carried on images. E. L. Doctorow emotion ideas It may be that the most avid readers of new fiction in America today are film producers, an indication of the trouble were in. E. L. Doctorow avid america fiction I've always felt, as a writer, that radicals are fascinating because they're relations, they have a place in the American family. They're the relatives everyone wishes would go away. They're the embarrassments to decorum and good taste. E. L. Doctorow radicalism going-away wish I have committed many sins in my life. This precise sin-the sin against poets-is without absolution. E. L. Doctorow poet committed sin The theory of the teacher with all these immigrant kids was that if you spoke English loudly enough they would eventually understand. E. L. Doctorow teaching teacher kids A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to. E. L. Doctorow able reader may I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority. E. L. Doctorow storytelling feelings culture Things that appear on the front page of the newspaper as 'fact' are far more dangerous than the games played by a novelist, and can lead to wars. E. L. Doctorow novelists games war When I'm writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences. E. L. Doctorow wall writing looks When you're working well, you don't do research. Whatever you need comes to you. E. L. Doctorow wells research needs Writing is immensely difficult. The short forms especially. E. L. Doctorow difficult form writing It is the immigrant hordes who keep this country alive, the waves of them arriving year after year.... Who believes in America more than the people who run down the gangplank and kiss the ground? E. L. Doctorow running believe country A writer of books has to admit that film is the enemy, and that in my case I have been sleeping with the enemy. E. L. Doctorow sleep book enemy We dress them [children] in the presumptions of the world. They are the bright small face of hope. They are the last belief we have, the belief in making them believe. E. L. Doctorow dresses believe children It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can see the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow I discovered Einstein said the same thing about his celebrated theories of relativity that writers say about their work when he said he didn't have any feelings of personal possession of these ideas. Once they were out there, they came from somewhere else. And that's exactly the feeling when you write. You don't feel possessive about it. E. L. Doctorow feel feeling you work
