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Quotes about writing

377 quotes from 206 people

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American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Gore Vidal1925–2012Two Sisters: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel (1970)
- America
The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity — much less dissent.
Gore Vidal1925–2012“Cue the Green God, Ted” (1991).
- America
- Journalism
Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.
Voltaire1694–1778Candide (1759), Chapter XXVIn context
- Fame
I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled “Science Fiction” … and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.
Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007“Science Fiction”; originally published in The New York Times Book Review, 5 September 1965
- Clever Jabs
A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.
Horace Walpole1717–1797Letter 123 To Robert Jephson (13 July 1777)
Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography.
Evelyn Waugh1903–1966A Little Learning (1964), First lines
- Age
News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read. And it’s only news until he’s read it. After that it’s dead.
Evelyn Waugh1903–1966Scoop (1938)
- Journalism
If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.
Ai Weiweiborn 1957Osnos, Evan. “It’s Not Beautiful: An Artist Takes On the System.” New Yorker, May 24, 2010, 54–63.
- Internet
I have never known a novel that was good enough to be good in spite of its being adapted to the author’s political views.
Edith Wharton1862–1937Letter to Upton Sinclair (19 August 1927)
- Politics
Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without annoying delays: don’t write about Man, write about ‘a’ man.
E. B. White1899–1985
It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.
E. B. White1899–1985Charlotte’s Web, last lines
- Friendship
An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.
E. B. White1899–1985Letter to Shirley Wiley (30 March 1954), in The Letters of E. B. White (1989), p. 391
When you consider that there are a thousand ways to express even the simplest idea, it is no wonder writers are under a great strain. Writers care greatly how a thing is said — it makes all the difference.
E. B. White1899–1985Paris Review interview (1969)
But what is the difference between literature and journalism? Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Critic as Artist Part I (1891), Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1905) The Critic As Artist Part II, in Intentions New York, Bretanos. Retrieved from Library of Congress Americana Archive.org 26 February 2018
- Journalism
- Reading
Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I