The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence. Cyril Connolly
The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone. John Updike
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.
His father, Vincent, took him to La Coupole in Paris and, after sitting on the terrace for a while, walked off and forgot him. It was the perfect start in life for a writer. Anatole Broyard
His father, Vincent, took him to La Coupole in Paris and, after sitting on the terrace for a while, walked off and forgot him. It was the perfect start in life for a writer.
To be misunderstood can be the writer's punishment for having disturbed the reader's peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding. Anatole Broyard
To be misunderstood can be the writer's punishment for having disturbed the reader's peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding.
When I was first in Czechoslovakia, it occurred to me that I work in a society where as a writer everything goes and nothing matters, while for the Czech writers I met in Prague, nothing goes and everything matters. Philip Roth
When I was first in Czechoslovakia, it occurred to me that I work in a society where as a writer everything goes and nothing matters, while for the Czech writers I met in Prague, nothing goes and everything matters.
The test of an author is not to be found merely in the number of his phrases that pass current in the corner of newspapers... but in the number of passages that have really taken root in younger minds. Thomas W. Higginson
The test of an author is not to be found merely in the number of his phrases that pass current in the corner of newspapers... but in the number of passages that have really taken root in younger minds.
The received image of a writer is that of an unproductive sensitive who suffers from the vapors, is enslaved by his gonads, falls victim to romantic swoons and passes out at deadlines. George V. Higgins
The received image of a writer is that of an unproductive sensitive who suffers from the vapors, is enslaved by his gonads, falls victim to romantic swoons and passes out at deadlines.
Sometimes I think [my writing] sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running. Gene Fowler
Sometimes I think [my writing] sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running.
Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes and always count their change when it is handed to them. Catherine Drinker Bowen
Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes and always count their change when it is handed to them.
Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing. Fannie Hurst
Any writer worth the name is always getting into one thing or getting out of another thing.
I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation. James A. Michener
I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.
The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see -- every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties. Graham Greene
The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see -- every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties.
The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination. James A. Michener
The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.
What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy. Salman Rushdie
What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.
Novelists do not write as birds sing, by the push of nature. It is part of the job that there should be much routine and some daily stuff on the level of carpentry. William G. Golding
Novelists do not write as birds sing, by the push of nature. It is part of the job that there should be much routine and some daily stuff on the level of carpentry.
A real writer learns from earlier writers the way a boy learns from an apple orchard-by stealing what he has a taste for and can carry off. Archibald Macleish
A real writer learns from earlier writers the way a boy learns from an apple orchard-by stealing what he has a taste for and can carry off.
Good authors, too, who once knew better words Now use only four-letter words Writing prose - Anything goes. Cole Porter
Good authors, too, who once knew better words Now use only four-letter words Writing prose - Anything goes.
Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens. Malcolm Cowley
Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens.
The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: the power to see, to sense, and to say. That is, he is perceptive, he is feeling, and he has the power to express in language what he observes and reacts to. Lawrence Clark Powell
The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: the power to see, to sense, and to say. That is, he is perceptive, he is feeling, and he has the power to express in language what he observes and reacts to.
The original writer is not he who does not imitate others, but he who can be imitated by none. François R. Chateaubriand
The original writer is not he who does not imitate others, but he who can be imitated by none.
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