Friday, July 9, 2010

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes...

Good morning everyone! Since the writing quotes I posted a while ago were so popular, I decided to do another post of more this month. Here they are, in no particular order or organization. Can't you tell what a tangled ferment of ideas my brain is always in? ;)

Out of the mouths of babes...

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“The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.” ~~ Russell Baker


“Writing well mean never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.” ~~ Jeff Mallet


“Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.” ~~ Mark Twain


“To be arrested for the power of your writing is the highest compliment a writer can be paid—if an unwelcome one.” ~~Ngugi wa Thiong'o


“A happy ending...a distribution at the last of prizes, pensions, husbands, wives, babies, millions, appended paragraphs, and cheerful remarks.” ~~Henry James


“I have always wanted to write in such a way that will make people think, 'Why, I've always thought that but never found the words for it.' ” ~~ Pamela Johnson


“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.” ~~ Ernest Hemingway


“Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” ~~Gene Fowler


“One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time, and in other's minds.” ~~ Alfred Kazin


“When I say “work” I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.” ~~ Margaret Laurence

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In this batch of quotes I've picked three “Author's Choice” quotes to feature. I've been reading this a lot lately. This one always puts a wry smile on my face, because it fits quite perfectly with my struggle to remain true to writing while I could be making so much more MONEY for so little stress if I were to simply do a job like ordinary people!

The fact that writers will go through so much to remain writers says something. It would be far easier (and nearly always more profitable) to become a real estate agent.” ~~ Maria Lenhart


The next one makes me chuckle and remember all the strange looks I get at work every day, when I get a story idea and stare blankly off into the distance, gabbling to invisible people. Oh the trials employers (and friends, and families, and boyfriends and girlfriends and dogs) of writers go through...

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.” ~~ Meg Chittenden


And the third is Truth. The more I watch and study people, the more I see how much they miss. Most people seem to have tunnel vision... they don't see the drama, pathos, and romance that fills the world around us. You don't have to travel to faraway lands or pay buckets of money to find adventure. It's right here in our backyard, just waiting for someone to be conscious that it's there. Writers usually manage to find it. :)

I must write it all out at any cost. Writing is thinking.. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.” ~~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

3 comments:

Elisabeth Grace Foley said...

“I have always wanted to write in such a way that will make people think, 'Why, I've always thought that but never found the words for it.' ” ~~ Pamela Johnson

Exactly! That one's my favorite.

Pegg Thomas said...

Great quotes!

Nina Hansen said...

Thanks!

Isn't that one brilliant, Elisabeth? It's so true!

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