What a writer can do, what a fiction writer or a poet or an essay writer can do is re-engage people with their own humanity.
Barbara Kingsolver
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WILLIAM GOLDING A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a b...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY I don't believe a poet has a better hold on truth or morality than a fiction writer has. And I d...
COLUM MCCANN A writer of fiction is really... a congenital liar who invents from his own knowledge or that of oth...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY My function as a writer is to provide an atmosphere in which people can think wisely about what we...
BARRY LOPEZ What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the w...
BURTON RASCOE The opportunity to decieve others is ever present and often tempting, and each instance of deception...
SAM HARRIS When a writer becomes a reader of his or her own work, a lot can go wrong. It's like do-it-yours...
WILLIAM COLLINS What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of th...
BURTON RASCOE If you like to read, sometimes it's interesting just to go and see what the reality is, of the w...
HAROLD BRODKEY When you find a waiter who is a waiter and not an actor, writer, musician or poet, you've found a je...
ANDRE SOLTNER Is the biographer an artist who can and should exist on equal terms with the dramatist, fiction writ...
TOM PAULIN I'm an immigrant writer, or an African writer, or an Ethiopian-American writer, and occasionally...
DINAW MENGESTU Stand for something. Make your life mean something. Start where you are with what you have. You are ...
GERMANY KENT I am a writer. Imagining what someone would say or do comes to me as naturally as breathing.
JOAN DIDION All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.
SAUL BELLOW When a writer is already stretching the bounds of reality by writing within a science fiction or fan...
JANE LINDSKOLD No one can teach writing, but classes may stimulate the urge to write. If you are born a writer, you...
CYNTHIA OZICK You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover ...
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA You cannot teach creativity -- how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover...
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA I'm a fiction writer, and fiction is telling the lives of unreal people. But the only way you ca...
ROBERT J. SAWYER Any director or writer or artist has the right to do what they want to do - freedom of expression is...
BIRGITTE HJORT SORENSEN There can be nothing more humiliating for a writer of fiction to have to do than restate a case that...
ARUNDHATI ROY I don't think that talking to anybody can help you - a writer or a nonwriter. So what do I do in...
JANE HAMILTON An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer ...
V. S. NAIPAUL An autobiography can distort, facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies. It reveals the write...
V. S. NAIPAUL As a writer, the worst thing you can do is work in an environment of fear of rejection.
CAROL LEIFER What has a writer to be bombastic about? Whatever good a man may write is the consequence of acciden...
EDWARD DAHLBERG If you're a writer, the insight of other writers - if there's some kind of Holy Grail messag...
JIM RASH All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.
SAUL BELLOW Every writer dreams about the day they can step into their fiction and wander its hallways.
SHANNON L. ALDER A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether h...
ROALD DAHL If a man is a writer, everybody tiptoes around past the locked door of the breadwinner. But if you...
BARBARA W. TUCHMAN If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows an...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.
ANTON CHEKHOV What a writer brings to any story is an attitude
JOHN GREGORY DUNNE We're trying to get kids to look at writing and what that creative writer has to do. We want to get ...
FRAN JOHNSON Every novel which is truly written contributes to the total of knowledge which is there at the dispo...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan; you just hope for...
DAVID E. KELLEY Write a story a great writer would write. Because part of becoming an artist is pushing through all ...
KAREN BENDER I do not know what makes a writer, but it probably isn't happiness.
WILLIAM SAROYAN Creative non-fiction is such a liberating genre because it allows the non-fiction writer, whether he...
LEE GUTKIND A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth and that is why we call what he writes fiction.
WILLIAM FAULKNER You can point out to people how to make what they do better, but you can't teach somebody how to be ...
RICHARD PRICE Being a fiction writer makes you someone who works with irresponsibility.
ORHAN PAMUK Life can't defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover ...
EDNA FERBER I'm a schoolteacher and a writer. So that's what I do.
BRUCE JACKSON What no wife of a writer understands is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window.
BURTON RASCOE You have seven writers in your basement?”
Donald nods, signing, “They like it here. T...
SUSAN WIGGS Love made me a poet, detachment made me a writer
NIHAL KIRAN DALWAI The worst thing that can happen for a writer is for a writer to start believing their own press. I t...
GREG RUCKA If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn't hesitate to do so.
ANDRE GIDE If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn't hesitate to do so
ANDRE GIDE Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.
JOHN LE CARRE The time of illusion, then, is the beautiful moment of passion; it represents the artistic zone in w...
LAFCADIO HEARN But, somewhere in there, I did have the thought that this really fits in with my thinking about what...
A. E. VAN VOGT What some people call a nightmare, a writer calls a plot.
JAMES R. PADDOCK A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.
KARL KRAUS Anyone can write one book: even politicians do it. Starting a second book reveals an intention to be...
LEN DEIGHTON I do like to work on a Marvel method, so if I've got the opportunity, and the writer is happy to...
DAVID LLOYD If I wasn't a musician I could find something else... maybe an artist or a painter because I still d...
BRANDON THOMAS This is exactly what we wanted. It is very rewarding. Who knows -- we may get a writer or an illustr...
CELESTINE SOFIKA I always felt that I was a writer, that was what I had to do.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON Miranda Writes: Anything you say or do may be used for or against you within a story by a writer
JAZZ FEYLYNN I'm just trying to tell a nice story. Whether you're a writer or a producer, all you want to...
IRWIN WINKLER People don't understand how much influence they can actually have on a writer, how much a writer...
THOMAS MCGUANE I love historical fiction because there's a literal truth, and there's an emotional truth, a...
JEWELL PARKER RHODES I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I'm a...
DAVID BOWIE A writer is a dangerous friend. Everything you say, all of your life and experience, is fodder for o...
RANDY MURRAY I definitely want to act and I want to sing. If those two fall through, I want to become a writer, p...
CASSIE STEELE Being a dedicated writer and poet takes time, commitment and energy. You don't have time to drink or...
LAUREN MANOJLOVICH Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying a...
NANCY PELOSI A writer can do without food for a few hours but not without the sight of books.
PAWAN MISHRA I think as an artist or a writer it's OK to want to control your own work.
JAMES FREY The job of the poet and the writer is to conceive an idea or emotion and pursue it with such might t...
CARLOS SALINAS The similarity between the big directors I've worked with is that they allow the writer to find ...
STEVEN ZAILLIAN It was one of those early mid-life crises, really. I started asking myself, 'What is it that I w...
PETINA GAPPAH Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when he gets down to the real busine...
ISAAC ASIMOV A writer can write in an attic, or on top of a bus. Or with a sharp stick in some wet cement. To act...
PAUL MUNI The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task.
ROBERTSON DAVIES The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.
ANAIS NIN The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.
ANAïS NIN I'm not a drug salesman. I'm a writer."
"What makes you think a writer isn't a drug sales...
KURT VONNEGUT Being a writer is an endless study in human transition and lessons learned or forgotten or misapplie...
SLOANE CROSLEY You never know what to expect when you're a writer visiting a movie set.
BRYAN BURROUGH I do understand my limitations as a fiction writer, which is why my novels are always going to be cl...
GEOFF DYER My mission as a writer is to give my readers hope to carry with them, and to promote a belief that t...
WENDELIN VAN DRAANEN A talented writer can write women, men, dogs, pigs. They can write old people, young people. Does a ...
DIRK BENEDICT In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England ...
GEOFFREY COTTRELL In America, only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England...
GEOFFREY COTTRELL I'm from the beatnik generation, where everybody wanted to be a poet or writer or something. And...
HARVEY PEKAR The worst advice a young writer can get is "Write what you know." Imagination is more important than...
JOE HALDEMAN No writer has a right to make that much money. Indeed, without diabolical assistance, no writer can.
WOLE SOYINKA The worst mistake a writer can make is to assume everyone has an imagination.
ANDREW MCEWAN I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed.
DAN SIMMONS I think that reading is always active. As a writer, you can only go so far; the reader meets you hal...
RUTH REICHL Any adjective you put before the noun 'writer' is going to be limiting in some way. Whether ...
ALICE MCDERMOTT
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER You talk about her as if she is the Notre Dame Cathedral!" "She is. And the Statue of Liberty and Ab...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I was so depressed I stopped using hair spray for three weeks.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER I’m always looking at the dialectic between the truth we believe exists outside ourselves and the ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Alice hands Annawake a handkerchief. Young people never carry them, she's noticed. They haven't yet ...
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise that he...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Be sweet and carry a sharp knife, was her motto.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER Finally Cub said, "They don't call it global weirding."
"I know. But I think that's actually th...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER restraint equals indulgence
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER If you can't live by the laws the LORD God made for the world, they'll go into effect regardless.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER When I was Turtle’s age I had never had anyone or anything important taken from me. I still hadn�...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I never could figure out why men thought they could impress a woman by making the world out to be su...
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER That means you're my kid," I explained, "and I'm your mother, and nobody can say it isn't so.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flap...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER It was hard to feel the remotest sympathy for any of the different fools she'd been. As opposed to t...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Whatever you want the most, it’s going to be the worst thing for you.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER I had decided early on that if I couldn’t dress elegant, I’d dress memorable.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER The longer I think about a food industry organized around an animal that cannot reproduce itself wit...
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER Most of us are creatures so comforted by habit, it can take something on the order of religion to in...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Every time I write a new novel about something sombre and sobering and terrible I think, 'oh Lor...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward for the long wait. Every religious tra...
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER You think you're no good, so you can't do good things. Jesus, Codi, how long are you going to keep l...
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physi...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER You can’t replace people you love with other people…But you can trust that you’re not going to...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhe...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Insomnia’s different,” I said. It was hard to explain this to people. “You know the light that...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sometimes I still have American dreams. I mean literally. I see microwave ovens and exercise machine...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER To people who think of themselves as God's houseguests, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyon...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't expect to see perfection before I die. Lord, if I did I would have stuck my head in the oven...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER But children robbed of love will dwell on magic.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER You're thinking of revolution as a great all-or-nothing. I think of it as one more morning in a mugg...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I thought: this is how life is, ridiculous beyond comprehension.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I've about decided that's the main thing that separates happy people from the other people: the feel...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I live...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Your dreams, what you hope for and all that, it's not separate from your life. It grows right up out...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Emelina and I took each other in. All morning I'd felt the strange disjuncture that comes from recon...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from th...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER She kept swimming out into life because she hadn't yet found a rock to stand on.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER He warned Mother not to flout God's Will by expecting too much of us. "Sending a girl to college is ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER ....mountains. They stand at every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER But I'll tell you a secret. When I want to take God at his word exactly I take a peep out the window...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER When you're given a brilliant child you polish her and let her shine.
Pigs in Heaven
BARBARA KINGSOLVER As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer's long hair in water. I kne...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to inv...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick t...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER When I sit down to write, I consider myself an artist.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I know I'm a rare person, a trained scientist who writes fiction, because so few contemporary no...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Most every book I bring into the world is like birthing a baby; it's a lot of effort!
BARBARA KINGSOLVER After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were mis...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to unde...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER At home, growing up, we weren't really poor. We had everything we needed, we just didn't hav...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I suppose that is my central obsession. What we owe to society, what we owe to ourselves.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Being a novelist and being a mother have exactly coincided in my life: the call from my agent saying...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I'm not pretending to be ingenuous; I know what I'm doing.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER