Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.
- Matthew Arnold
Being a poet is one of the unhealthier jobs—no regular hours, so many temptations!
- Elizabeth Bishop
First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!
- Ray Bradbury
If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.
- Edgar Rice Burroughs
I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.
- Truman Capote
My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.
- Anton Chekhov
Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.
- William Faulkner
A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just begins to live that day.
- Emily Dickinson
Rushdie on Pain & Writing
Rushdie talking About how Pain affects writing…I think it’s a good answer in terms of that age-old question: do you have to suffer to write well. http://www.charlierose.com/view/clip/9516
A friend sent me this link at 4am during finals week when I was on the edge of just giving up on a paper. NEVER DO THIS. And it helped me get through a few extra pages. You can also find Henry Miller’s Writing Commandments on this link.
So if you ever feel like you need an extra caboose on writing, academically or not, definitely check out his tips.
I love his second to last bullet: You’re a Genius all the time.
So True.
I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
-JOAN DIDION
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Cheryl Straying…this one goes out to karen (I particularly like the part where she talks about the fact that you don’t actually get to decide, in the end, whether what you’ve written is “great literature” other people will decide that anyway…).
