I learned that you should feel when writing, not like
Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing
beads in kindergarten, -- happy, absorbed and quietly
putting one bead on after another. ~ Brenda Ueland
The only way to become a better writer is to become a
better person.--Brenda Ueland
My work...is to shatter the faith of men here, there,
and everywhere, faith in affirmation, faith in negation,
and faith in abstention from faith, and this for the sake
of faith in faith itself. ~ Miguel de Unamuno
Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part
that is good is not original, and the part that is original
is not good. ~ Author Unknown, commonly misattributed to
Samuel Johnson
Eschew obfuscation. ~ Unknown
The long-lived books of tomorrow are concealed
somewhere amongst the so-far unpublished MSS of today. ~
Philip Unwin
If a publisher declines your manuscript, remember it is
merely the decision of one fallible human being, and try
another. ~ Sir Stanley Unwin
I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in
everybody's head. ~ John Updike
Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it
is one is saying. ~ John Updike
The measure of artistic merit is the length to which a
writer is willing to go in following his own compulsions. ~
John Updike
You always find things you didn't know you were going
to say, and that is the adventure of writing. ~ John
Updike
I can’t help but to write, I have a inner need for it.
If I’m not in the middle of some literary project, I’m
utterly lost, unhappy and distressed. As soon as I get
started, I calm down. ~ Kaari Utrio
Quotes on Writing V
Follow the path of your aroused thought, and you will
soon meet this infernal inscription: There is nothing so
beautiful as that which does not exist. ~ Paul Valery
You are what you read. ~ Esko Valtaoja
Imitation is the highest form of pissing me off. Quit
stealing my content and violating my copyright. ~ Jen T.
Verbumessor
The most interesting thing about writing is the way
that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three
minutes. ~ Gore Vidal
Each writer is born with a repertory company in his
head and as you get older, you become more skillful casting
them. ~ Gore Vidal
God sells us all things at the price of the labour. ~
Leonardo da Vinci
If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the
courage to succeed. ~ David Viscott
The only reward to be expected from literature is
contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds. ~
Voltaire
The adjective is the enemy of the noun. ~ Francois
Marie Arouet de Voltaire
If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't
have nerve enough to be homosexual, the least you can do is
go into the arts. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by
policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing
more to say? ~ Kurt Vonnegut
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and
developing our wings on the way down. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a
novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has
put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae. ~Kurt
Vonnegut
The best reason for putting anything down on paper is
that one may then change it. ~ Bernard De Voto
I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the
paperwork. ~ Peter de Vries