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Quotes about writing

377 quotes from 206 people

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The hotel shop only had two decent books, and I’d written both of them.
Douglas Adams1952–2001The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
- Comedy
When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Guardian (1713), No. 115
The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader’s eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Tatler, No. 224 (14 September 1710)
- Business
Why did people ask “What is it about?” as if a novel had to be about only one thing.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichieborn 1977Americanah (2013)
- Reading
You were merely asked to bend, but you chose to crawl.
L. K. Advaniborn 1927To the Indian press as Information and Broadcasting Minister (1977), on its conduct during the Emergency
- Clever Jabs
- Journalism
In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.
Spiro Agnew1918–1996Speech in San Diego (September 11, 1970)
- Clever Jabs
- Journalism
The written word is an act of human solidarity. I write so that people will love each other more.
Isabel Allendeborn 1942In Interviews with Latin American Writers (1989)
Every writer hopes or boldly assumes that his life is in some sense exemplary, that the particular will turn out to be universal.
Martin Amis1949–2023The Observer [London] (30 August 1987)
Style is not neutral; it gives moral directions.
Martin Amis1949–2023Novelists in Interview (1985) edited by John Haffenden
- Morality
I mean, look at them all: Dickens, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Smollet, Fielding, they’re all funny. All the good ones are funny.
Martin Amis1949–2023Prospect interview (2010)
- Humor
All that I have written seems like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me.
Thomas Aquinas1225–1274Processus canonizationis S. Thomae, Neapoli, LXXIX
- Faith
But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.
Aristotle384–322 BCPoetics, 1459a.4
- Genius
For the purposes of poetry a convincing impossibility is preferable to an unconvincing possibility.
Aristotle384–322 BCPoetics, 1461b.11
- Poetry
Journalism is literature in a hurry.
Matthew Arnold1822–1888
- Journalism
If one were searching for the best means to efface and kill in a whole nation the discipline of self-respect, the feeling for what is elevated, he could do no better than take the American newspapers.
Matthew Arnold1822–1888Civilization in the United States (1888), p. 177
- America
- Journalism