I have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.
Madeleine L'Engle
Related I would say if you want to write, write what you care about. I think that's the most important t... JERRY SPINELLI I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a heal... ALICE WALKER Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think about what you shall write. WILLIAM COBBETT Writers are there to write, not experience things. If you want to experience things, become a pirate... WALTER MOERS A lot of teenagers write to me and say "I want to write a book. I want to get published." And those ... MAUREEN JOHNSON Do not copy my style! The first rule of writing is write about what you know, not what you think you... JACKIE COLLINS You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. ... PATRICK NESS A lot of people who don't write for kids think it's easy, because they think kids aren't... BRIAN SELZNICK 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer Write. Write more. Write even more. W... BRIAN CLARK The old adage is, 'Write what you know.' But if you only do that, your work becomes claustro... JULIA GLASS So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ag... VIRGINIA WOOLF You have to write down what you really want to do in this life and then you have to write down what ... SUNDAY ADELAJA A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childh... TEA OBREHT I don't want to write every week, it's too much trouble, and I shall only write when I want somethin... ROBERT GOULD SHAW Whatever you have a passion for, then you must do. If you want to write, write about something you k... JACKIE COLLINS Write what you really care about. Write what you want to say because that is the experience that alw... BETSY BEERS write what readers want to read, which isn’t necessarily what you want to write. NICHOLAS SPARKS I write about emotions - falling in and out of love, finding what you want to do, no matter where yo... CECELIA AHERN Either you write songs or you don't. And if you do write songs like I do, I think there's a natural ... ROGER WATERS Only write what inspires you to write. If nothing inspires you write, anyhow. Something might come u... A.J. CHILSON The secret is to write just anything, to dare to write just anything, because when you write just an... JULIAN GREEN No one can teach writing, but classes may stimulate the urge to write. If you are born a writer, you... CYNTHIA OZICK You're a reader as well as a writer, so write what you'd want to read. CASSANDRA CLARE The most common thing I find is very brilliant, acute, young people who want to become writers but t... TEJU COLE Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write. ELIE WIESEL When I sit down to write, I don't think, 'OK, what is the next David O. Russell film I can w... MATTHEW QUICK Most important of all, there is no right or wrong way to write - there's only what works for you... TAMORA PIERCE I'm not a big fan of psychoanalysis: I think if you have mental problems what you need are good ... STEPHEN KING Ever hear the expression "write what you know?" My version says "write what you want to know." If yo... AMELIA ATWATER-RHODES What's so crazy is when you give interviews to reporters that don't really care too much for... FLOYD MAYWEATHER, JR. And write what you love - don't feel pressured to write serious prose if what you like is to be ... CASSANDRA CLARE You can't write anything you want. Once you write that first chapter, then everything else is de... WAYNE GRADY To be honest with you, I don't male-bash. I don't believe in male-bashing. I write about thi... CHERRELLE If you want to write good copy, you must be where the things are. ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE SR. Write every day. Don't kill yourself. I think a lot of people think, 'I have to write a chap... CASSANDRA CLARE If we're setting the same goal every year, that should be a clue. I tell every person to write down ... GARY COXE Write against patterns. Go against the devils. Write what you never write. Lie. Validate what you do... DEENA METZGER Write what you feel. Write because of that need for expression. DOROTHY FIELDS Write a story a great writer would write. Because part of becoming an artist is pushing through all ... KAREN BENDER I write so that people will read what I write. I don't want to write a book that a thousand peop... ANN HOOD When you write about what you dream, you become a writer. When you dream about what you w... A. SALEH There is nothing to write about, you say. Well then, write and let me know just this - that there is... PLINY THE YOUNGER Long-time viewing of Internet violence tend to change a person's temperament, making the person pron... YOU QUANXI If positive and healthy materials are absent, negative materials are sure to be dominant in the cybe... YOU QUANXI In a robust global business environment, our business units operated well in the first quarter. More... HARRY YOU The Board of Directors and I are pleased to recognize Peter's outstanding contribution to the succes... HARRY YOU We are pleased to close the books on 2004 following the painstaking review of almost five years of f... HARRY YOU If you would be a reader, read; if a writer,write EPICTETUS I resent people who say writers write from experience. Writers don't write from experience, though m... NIKKI GIOVANNI Some things are hard to write about. After something happens to you, you go to write it down, and ei... SYLVIA PLATH But if you want to be in a band and write music, then you should just be in a band and write music. ADAM JONES In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to b... JUNOT DíAZ When you write a script, you always think about what your heart is asking. OLIVIER MEGATON To write is to reveal oneself. When I write something, fiction or non-fiction, I do not expect ... SANHITA BARUAH If you want to be a writer, then write. I. MARLENE KING It's amazing, if you know what you want to say, how fast it is to write. EVAN DAVIS If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write! JACKIE COLLINS If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!. JACKIE COLLINS Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write ROBERT PENN WARREN To write, you need to find what you love. D. J. MACHALE Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The word is ... RAY BRADBURY Early on, it's good to develop the ability to write. Learning to write is a useful exercise, eve... WALTER GILBERT I think you have to love the characters that you write. I don't know how you could possibly writ... ELIZABETH MERIWETHER I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I... VIRGIL THOMSON We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does thing... STEPHEN FRY I've always thought that the balance between the side of my mind that knows what it is doing and... ANDREW MOTION If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. STEPHEN KING Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word... RAY BRADBURY There are enough books in the world. You want to write the ones that are good. The minute you write ... MICHAEL LEWIS If you want to write you must have faith in yourself. Faith enough to believe that if a thing is tru... GORDON ATKINSON Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of ... ANNIE DILLARD There's nothing romantic about my work... I don't believe in inspiration. I believe that you... IRVING STONE I don't think it is an easy thing to write and expect to be commercial, even if you are from Ven... A. S. BYATT Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood... MARK TWAIN The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want to know what people believe, don’... BOHDI SANDERS Write it. Just write it. Write it on receipts in the car while you wait for your kid to finish their... MELODIE RAMONE I think the silences we have on some issues are inductive of the fact that we need to write about th... IRVINE WELSH IF you wish to be a writer then don't wait until you write the "great American novel" for they aren'... SHIREE MCCARVER Writers are troubled about finding time to write and writer's block and publicizing books that a... DEB CALETTI Because if you're trying to write and you have unlimited time, you can procrastinate an unlimite... JULIA CAMERON If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make ... THOMAS MERTON If you're going to write, then write a novel with a Haitian woman in it and try and describe her... JEFF BUCKLEY If you really want to write, then shut yourself in a room, close the door, and WRITE. If you don'... MARY GARDEN If you are going to write, nothing will stop you, and if you are not going to write, nothing will ma... ALAN GARNER The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON I don't know if there is any one secret to successful writing, but one important step is to move bey... JAMES GUNN I mean, what can you say about how you write your books? What I mean is, first you've got to ... AGATHA CHRISTIE If you want to be a professional writer then you need to write consistently. Inspiration strikes abo... CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI I don't know if there is any one secret to successful writing, but one important step is to move... JAMES E. GUNN I always tell students that writing a poem and publishing it are two quite separate things, and you ... WENDY COPE Being prepared helps you feel more confident at the doctor's office. Think about what you want t... ANDIE MACDOWELL I think all writers write from the time they're really young, and you just start asking the ques... K. A. APPLEGATE Never sit staring at a blank page or screen. If you find yourself stuck, write. Write about the scen... LAINI TAYLOR The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader,... ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but do... JOE ABERCROMBIE Living a life where you are true to yourself takes more courage than hiding under a false life such ... KAILIN GOW I think the secret is really observation. Well, if you observe what's going on and try to figure... SAM COOKE When you think of a great twist or a red herring or a way of misdirecting the reader, it is good, bu... MARK BILLINGHAM If you can't write a book, write a chapter. If you can't do that, write a page, a sentence or a word... TARUN BETALA Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it i... NEIL SIMON
More Madeleine L'Engle
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LOUIS L'AMOUR Because a man plays a king superbly well does not mean that he would make a good king. LOUIS L'AMOUR Can you see the future, Kerbouchard?" "Who would wish to? Our lives hold a veil between anticip... LOUIS L'AMOUR Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on LOUIS L'AMOUR Personally, I do not believe the human mind has any limits but those we impose ourselves. LOUIS L'AMOUR To live in a city, one must be larger than one's environment or enjoy belonging to the crowd. LOUIS L'AMOUR All that was speculation, and a man can get carried away by a reasonable theory. Often a man finds a... LOUIS L'AMOUR Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what ... LOUIS L'AMOUR You can have all the wine and dragons that my money can buy. That’s what the old woman told me, an... L'PONI BALDWIN He taunted me, "Pony boy, pony boy," because I liked ponies. Pony boy. He always came to vent his an... L'PONI BALDWIN I saw the last piece of innocence unfurl inside of her. -Nick Plato (from the story Plato... L'PONI BALDWIN He couldn't take his eye off that dragon There was something odd about the swaying of his tail<... L'PONI BALDWIN When he removed his robes, you could see the hundreds of scars and bruises that shamelessly decorate... L'PONI BALDWIN La vida es un regalo diario. Valóralo. Al final, lo que importa no son los años de vida, sino la v... PAOLA CALASANZ ''DULCINEA'' The capability of negotiating... is something that means you not only have to understand fully what ... MADELEINE ALBRIGHT I think I was probably an early teenager when I discovered Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and a bunch of pe... MADELEINE PEYROUX Second records aren't usually very good. Even Bob Dylan's was a bit disappointing. MADELEINE PEYROUX I was just learning to play guitar when Tracy Chapman came out. She wrote these songs, she played th... MADELEINE PEYROUX I'm very conscious of developing my singing, technically and stylistically. I want it to become ... MADELEINE PEYROUX Seeing how those companies operate, it didn't amount to a massive vote of confidence in their ar... MADELEINE PEYROUX I love playing to people and seeing them react. MADELEINE PEYROUX I was very lucky. Things happened, both bad and good, but I never got into real, deep trouble. But i... MADELEINE PEYROUX My father's record collection was full of New Orleans music of all kinds. I used to listen to th... MADELEINE PEYROUX Once I was in the city, I really enjoyed it. Just to experience things. There was so much new stuff. MADELEINE PEYROUX My father had a varied ear, from Hank Williams to Ravel. MADELEINE PEYROUX Jazz really does try to include everything. It's always been popular music. But the wonderful th... MADELEINE PEYROUX I've always loved singing. I find it exhilarating. MADELEINE PEYROUX I listened to Billie Holiday a lot in order to learn to sing. She remains one of the extraordinary j... MADELEINE PEYROUX I had my guitar and some talent so that I could make friends with intelligent people and could talk ... MADELEINE PEYROUX You have to let it all hang out, let go of the ideas that were more comfortable and embrace some of ... MADELEINE PEYROUX No matter where we come from or where we're going, we've all got memories to contend with, a... MADELEINE PEYROUX It's wonderful to work with someone with mentor status. MADELEINE PEYROUX A book comes and says, 'Write me.' My job is to try to serve it to the best of my ability, w... MADELEINE L'ENGLE With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, qu... MADELEINE L'ENGLE That's the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they've ... MADELEINE L'ENGLE Because you're not what I would have you be, I blind myself to who, in truth, you are. MADELEINE L'ENGLE Conversion for me was not a Damascus Road experience. I slowly moved into an intellectual acceptance... MADELEINE L'ENGLE You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown... MADELEINE L'ENGLE It is the ability to choose which makes us human. MADELEINE L'ENGLE Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it. MADELEINE L'ENGLE In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well,... MADELEINE L'ENGLE