Quotes of: Professional-writer Keyword

The principle I always go on in writing a novel is to think of the characters in terms of actors in a play. I say to myself, if a big name were playing this part, and if he found that after a strong first act he had practically nothing to do in the s...

P.G. Wodehouse

Some writers might tell you that writing is like a piece of magic - a process of creating something out of nothing, and I guess I used to think about it that way too a long long time ago. But as I've lived my life and loved and lost friends and famil...

Billy Marshall Stoneking

I beg your pardon, sir, said the Frenchman. I am not a coloniser. Well, let’s talk Algeria then. Let’s talk about your culture and your celebrated writers.

Carnival: A Novel

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints

In 1922 Woolf met the writer Vita Sackville-West, who was to join Vanessa Bell and Leonard Woolf as the most significant people in her life.

The Cambridge Introduction to Virginia Woolf

Then, as now, archaelogists and writers ventured where others feared to tread.

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia

First, I'm a writer; I look at things from a different point of view. The untrained eye is the eye that sees what's been missed. Devon, from The Dragon's Breath by Jenna Lindsey

The Dragon's Breath

Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that's wrong. They know less, that's why they write. Trying to find out what everyone else takes for granted.

Dancing Girls

Why have not Al-Bukhari himself wrote what he has collected? Is it really possible for Muslims to depend on writers about whom they know nothing; and, consequently, build a whole religion on nothing but a guess?

Dismantling ISIS

If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.

Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

Above all things -- read. Read the great stylists who cannot be copied rather than the successful writers who must not be copied.

Death on the Air and Other Stories

Because the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage. And if he has none, he is more than a coward. He is a sellout and a fink and a heretic, because writing is a holy chore.

Dangerous Visions

No matter how great a writer, artist, or entrepreneur, he is a mortal, he is fallible. He is not proof against Resistance. He will drop the ball; he will crash. That’s why they call it rewriting.

Do the Work

Panem et Circenses translates into 'Bread and Circuses.' The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power.

Ender's Game

A book, a true book, is the writer's confessional. For, whether he would have it so or not, he is betrayed, directly or indirectly, by his characters, into presenting publicly his innermost feelings.

Entrapment and Other Writings

veterans and remarkable rookies. International Thriller Writers, Inc. (ITW) cofounder, David

First Thrills: High-Octane Stories from the Hottest Thriller Authors

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Flaubert's Parrot

I am the flail of god. Had you not created great sins, god would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.

Genghis Khan's Rules for (Warriors) Writers

A lot of artists start out as failed poets, then move on to being failed short-story writers before they finally break through to the big time and become failed novelists.

Home for the Holidays

It can be depressing when no one takes interest, and a lack of response makes the writer question why they’re writing at all. To have one’s writing rejected is like you, yourself, are being rejected.

Apollo Weeps

Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life