Writing Quotes

If prisons, freight trains, swamps, and gators don't get ya to write songs, man, y'ain't got no business writin' songs.

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.

The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement

Got a long list of ex-lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane. But I got a blank space baby, and I'll write your name.

I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.

The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing.

It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics.

Language is power... Language can be used as a means of changing reality.

My twenties were a write-off. It's a cruel illness, because you can't see it and you can hide it so well.

A theme that appears repeatedly in the writings of the social critics of the second half of the 20th century is the sense of purposelessness that afflicts many people in modern society.

Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

The future is completely open and we are writing it moment to moment.

A lot of songs you write are just for exercise - just pencil sharpeners.

I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.

writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.

Women need to become literary "criminals," break the literary laws and reinvent their own, because the established laws prevent women from presenting the reality of their lives.

You don't necessarily have to write to be a poet. Some people work in gas stations and they're poets. I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word. I'm a trapeze artist.

If you get the objectives right, a lieutenant can write the strategy.

Tears are words that need to be written.

It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write.

Love is the only energy I’ve ever used as a writer. I’ve never written out of anger, although anger has informed love.

At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

Write about what you know and care deeply about. When one puts one's self on paper - that is what is called good writing.

You're successful if you can get one person to pick it up and put it on the turntable and go, Wow, thanks for writing that!

If something happened where I couldnt write music anymore, it would kill me. Its not just a job. Its not just a hobby. Its why I get up in the morning.

When I say work I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.

Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.

It is possible to have a pretty good life and career being a leech and a parasite in the media world, gadding about from TV studio to TV studio, writing inconsequential pieces and having a good time.

I am writing with my burnt hand about the nature of fire.

The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.

Writing was a political act and poetry was a cultural weapon.

Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

The only reason to write is from love.

I have devoted my energies to the study of the scriptures, observing monastic discipline, and singing the daily services in church; study, teaching, and writing have always been my delight.

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

Good prose should be transparent, like a window pane.

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.

Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.

Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.

Nothing, not love, not greed, not passion or hatred, is stronger than a writer's need to change another writer's copy.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

You've got to concentrate on the business of entertaining and writing songs. Always think different from the next person. Don't ever do a song as you heard somebody else do it.

Too often, I think, children are required to write before they have anything to say. Teach them to think and read and talk without self-repression, and they will write because they cannot help it.

When you're rich, you don't write checks. Straight cash, homey.

Write your name in kindness, love and mercy on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten.

The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into a new land.

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.

A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true.