Quotes about Writing: X

Writing eases my suffering... writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence. ~ Gao Xingjian
For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own family could turn you in. - Gao Xingjian, refering to writing during the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-Tung

Quotes about Writing: Y

Neither Christ nor Buddha nor Socrates wrote a book, for to do so is to exchange life for a logical process. ~ William Butler Yeats
It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude to cut out even the most brilliant passage so long as it doesn't advance the story. ~ Frank Yerby
Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up. ~ Jane Yolen
Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing... the rest will follow. ~ Jane Yolen
A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print. ~ Marguerite Yourcenar

Quotes about Writing: Z

Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant -you just don't know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you'd mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place.Trust your demon. ~ Roger Zelazny
One of my standard -- and fairly true -- responses to the question as to how story ideas come to me is that story ideas only come to me for short stories. With longer fiction, it is a character (or characters) coming to visit, and I am then obliged to collaborate with him/her/it/them in creating the story. ~ Roger Zelazny
Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas one long chunk of type can discourage the reader from even starting to read. ~ William Zinsser
If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things people do. ~ William Zinsser
Writing is thinking on paper. ~ William Zinsser
The word processor is God’s gift, or at least science’s gift, to the tinkerers, the refiners, and the neatness freaks. For me it was obviously the perfect new toy. I began playing on page 1 — editing, cutting, and revising — and have been on a rewriting high ever since. ~ William Zinsser
Writing is a craft, not an art . . . the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke. ~ William Zinsser

Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn’t spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso; they needed models. This is especially true of writing. ~ William Zinsser
I have no interest in teaching writers how to sell. I want to teach them how to write. If the process is sound, the product will take care of itself, and sales are likely to follow. ~ William Zinsser
There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you. ~ William Zinsser
Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader’s trust. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he is saying. Don’t diminish that belief. Don’t be kind of bold. Be bold. ~ William Zinsser
My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity. ~ William Zinsser
My commodity as a writer, whatever I’m writing about, is me. And your commodity is you. Don’t alter your voice to fit the subject. Develop one voice that readers will recognize when they hear it on the page, a voice that’s enjoyable not only in its musical line but in its avoidance of sounds that would cheapen its tone: breeziness and condescension and clichés. ~ William Zinsser
Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon. ~ William Zinsser
Finding a voice that your readers will enjoy is largely a matter of taste. Saying that isn’t much help—taste is a quality so intangible that it can’t even be defined. But we know it when we meet it. ~ William Zinsser
If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud. ~ Emile Zola

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