Quotes about Writing: G

Writing only leads to more writing. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle
There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I'm greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed. ~John Kenneth Galbraith
If you are pointing out one of the things a story is about, then you are very probably right; if you are pointing out the only thing a story is about you are very probably wrong - even if you're the author. ~ Neil Gaiman
When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day. ~ Neil Gaiman
You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it. ~ Neil Gaiman
Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what's wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. ~ Neil Gaiman

Rule one of reading other people's stories is that whenever you say 'well that's not convincing' the author tells you that's the bit that wasn't made up. This is because real life is under no obligation to be convincing. ~ Neil Gaiman
You need more than a beginning if you're going to start a book. If all you have is a beginning, then once you've written that beginning, you have nowhere to go. ~ Neil Gaiman
Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent. ~ Neil Gaiman
The ideas aren't that important. Really they aren't. Everyone's got an idea for a book, a movie, a story, a TV series. ~ Neil Gaiman
Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter. ~ Neil Gaiman
You can take for granted that people know more or less what a street, a shop, a beach, a sky, an oak tree look like. Tell them what makes this one different. ~ Neil Gaiman

All fiction is a process of imagining: whatever you write, in whatever genre or medium, your task is to make things up convincingly and interestingly and new. ~ Neil Gaiman
The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write. ~ Ernest Gaines
If you don't allow yourself the possibility of writing something very, very bad, it would be hard to write something very good. ~ Steven Galloway
Unfortunately many young writers are more concerned with fame than with their own work... It's much more important to write than to be written about. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The writer who cares more about words than about story – characters, action, setting, atmosphere – is unlikely to create a vivid and continuous dream; he gets in his own way too much; in his poetic drunkenness, he can't tell the cart – and its cargo – from the horse. ~ John Gardner
There are techniques—hundreds of them—that, like carpenter’s tricks, can be studied and taught. ~ John Gardner
All writers, given adequate technique—technique that communicates—can stir our interest in their special subject matter. ~ John Gardner
The writer’s business is to make up convincing human beings and create for them basic situations and actions by means of which they come to know themselves and reveal themselves to the reader. ~ John Gardner
What the beginning writer needs, discouraging as it may be to hear, is not a set of rules but mastery—among other things, mastery of the art of breaking so-called rules. ~ John Gardner
Mastery—not a full mental catalogue of the rules—must be the writer’s goal. He must get the art of fiction, in all its complexity—the whole tradition and all its technical options—down through the wrinkles and tricky wiring of his brain into his blood. ~ John Gardner

Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather. ~ John Gardner
Every writer at some point must go through an analytical period, but in time he must get his own characteristic solutions into his blood, so that when confronted with a problem in a novel he’s writing he does not consult his literary background. He feels his way to the solution; rather than drawing back from the fictional dream to look at what he’s doing, he solves the problem by plunging deeper into the dream. ~ John Gardner
It’s the sheer act of writing, more than anything else, that makes a writer. ~ John Gardner
Recognize that the art of writing is immensely more difficult than the beginning writer may at first believe but in the end can be mastered by anyone willing to do the work. ~ John Gardner
The real importance of literary technique is that it helps the writer check himself and zero in on truth. ~ John Gardner
The tale writer simply walks past our objections, granting that the events he is about to recount are incredible but winning our suspensions of disbelief by the confidence and authority of the narrator’s voice. ~ John Gardner
I am speaking of works in which technique is adequate to purpose. The artist who works at what he’s trying to say so clumsily that he cannot get it said, and the artist whose statement is so much like everybody else’s that nobody finds it worth listening to—these are frauds, apprentices, or fools. ~ John Gardner
Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan and a course laid out. ~ John Gardner

In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all but inescapable - plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition, perhaps including his own doubts, and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw. ~ John Gardner
We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images. ~ John Gardner
Make dialogue crackle with feelings not directly expressed. ~ John Gardner
When you start, the world of publishing seems like a great cathedral citadel of talent, resisting attempts to let you inside. It isn't like that at all. It may be more difficult now, and take longer than when I started to write, but there's a great, empty warehouse out there looking for simple talent. ~ Alan Garner
A notepad by the bedside accounts for half the earnings of my livelihood. If it weren't for bedtime, half my novels would still be stuck at dock. ~ Ever Garrison
I usually have poor to absent relations with editors because they have a habit of desiring changes and I resist changes. ~ William Gass
A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms. ~ Patricia Lee Gauch
If you haven't got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you'll only have to throw away the first three pages. ~ William Campbell Gault

Ecstatic is the Soul when Heart and Mind in unison desires to Write, to write for Self, for Others and above all for God, from whom this gift of writing indeed is. ~ Vanita George
Voice is one of the most elusive qualities in any story. We recognize it when we hear it, but it’s hard consciously to create an authentic voice. Somehow voice seems to be the natural manifestation of all the narrative decisions we’ve made so far. We discover it more than we fabricate it. ~ Philip Gerard
The habits of craft, developed day in and day out over a working lifetime, create moments of astonishment, sublime and magical effects, precisely because the writer is not thinking overtly about making art. ~ Philip Gerard
But a writing project begins not just in doubt but also in faith—that if your passion is genuine, if you have mastered the elements of your craft, in the act of writing you will learn the rest of what you need to know in order to do justice to your subject. ~Philip Gerard
You will not read voice on the page; you will hear it in your head. ~ Philip Gerard
You have to roll up your sleeves and be a stonecutter before you can become a sculptor — command of craft always precedes art: apprentice, journeyman, master. ~ Philip Gerard
We create an interior ‘movie’ in the reader’s head through words on the page. ~ Philip Gerard

The simplest tool of the writer is repetition. . . . The simplest tool of the writer is repetition. ~ Philip Gerard
Storytelling is the art of unfolding knowledge in a way that makes each piece contribute to a larger truth. ~ Philip Gerard
For the big stuff to work credibly, you’ve got to get the little stuff absolutely right. ~ Philip Gerard
The only way to write a novel is to proceed as if you had all the time in the world. ~ Philip Gerard
Voice really depends on the answer to the question, Who is telling this story? . . . That will color your diction—and determine your metaphors, your sensibility. ~ Philip Gerard
It’s not enough simply to record the way people actually talk. The dialogue must be concentrated, shaped, dramatically moving, in a way that real-life conversation seldom is. ~ Philip Gerard
There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground. ~ Edward Gibbon

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. ~ Edward Gibbon
You must learn to overcome your very natural and appropriate revulsion for your own work. ~ William Gibson
Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature. ~ Andre Gide
What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told. ~ André Gide
Nouns and verbs are almost pure metal; adjectives are cheaper ore. ~ Marie Gilchrist
To gain your own voice, forget about having it heard. Become a saint of your own province and your own consciousness. ~ Allen Ginsberg
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. ~ Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. ~ Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Every author in some degree portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Story is to human beings what the pearl is to the oyster. ~ Joseph Gold
If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you. ~ Natalie Goldberg
Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open. ~ Natalie Goldberg
Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there is an aching in you to speak. ~ Natalie Goldberg

That's very nice if they want to publish you, but don't pay too much attention to it. It will toss you away. Just continue to write. ~ Natalie Goldberg
One of the easiest things in the world is not to write... If it were easy, everyone would do it. ~ William Goldman
As difficult as it is for a writer to find a publisher--admittedly a daunting task--it is twice as difficult for a publisher to sort through the chaff, select the wheat, and profitably publish a worthy list. ~ Olivia Goldsmith
What we want is a story that starts with an earthquake and builds to a climax. ~ Samuel Goldwyn
Critics are by no means the end of the law. Do not think all is over with you because you articles are rejected. It may be that the editor has his drawer full, or that he does not know enough to appreciate you, or you have not gained a reputation, or he is not in a mood to be pleased. A critic's judgment is like that of any intelligent person. If he has experience, he is capable of judging whether a book will sell. That is all. ~ Lavina Goodell
One of the least impressive liberties is the liberty to starve. This particular liberty is freely accorded to authors. ~ Lord Goodman
Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area ~ Nadine Gordimer

You must write for children the same way you write for adults, only better ~ Maxim Gorky
Quitters don't win and winners don't quit. ~ Elliot Gould
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. ~Baltasar Gracián
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment. ~Baltasar Gracián
By making writing a part of your daily routine--just like brushing your teeth--you'll discipline yourself to work as a writer instead of a hobbyist who only writes when there's some fun to be had. ~ Theresa Grant
In brief, I spend half my time trying to learn the secrets of other writers - to apply them to the expression of my own thoughts. ~ Shirley Ann Grau
There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either. ~ Robert Graves

If you tell me, it's an essay. If you show me, it's a story. ~ Barbara Greene
Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation. ~ Graham Greene
Plotting is like sex. Plotting is about desire and satisfaction, anticipation and release. You have to arouse your reader's desire to know what happens, to unravel the mystery, to see good triumph. You have to sustain it, keep it warm, feed it, just a little bit, not too much at a time, as your story goes on. That's called suspense. It can bring desire to a frenzy, in which case you are in a good position to bring off a wonderful climax. ~ Colin Greenland
The writer's genetic inheritance and her or his experiences shape the writer into a unique individual, and it is this uniqueness that is the writer's only stuff for sale. ~ James Gunn

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