Just for fun, I thought I’d put up some of my favorite quotations about writing, writers, and publishing. Feel free to chime in with yours!
“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” — W. Somerset Maugham
“There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
“And every single one of them is right!” — Rudyard Kipling
(This one is practically my motto.)
“In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.” — George Orwell
“No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.” — H. G. Wells
“Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find matter therein with which to hang him. ” — Cardinal Richelieu
“Some writers say they cannot write in front of a window; many say they cannot function without almost perfect quiet. A writer with only two hours a day can write in the back of an open truck on the Interstate.” – Gene Wolfe
“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.” — Samuel Johnson
“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.” — Stephen King
“Publishing is the only industry I can think of where most of the employees spend most of their time stating with great self-assurance that they don’t know how to do their jobs. ‘I don’t know how to sell this,’ they complain, frowning as though it’s your fault. ‘I don’t know how to package this. I don’t know what the market is for this book. I don’t know how we’re going to draw attention to this.’ In most other occupations, people try to hide their incompetence; only in publishing is it flaunted as though it were the chief qualification for the job.” — Donald Westlake
9-and-60 is and remains the best writing advice I’ve had. I miss the rasfc of old 🙁
Da Vinci said this, only about Art.
“Your letter is come; it came indeed twelve lines ago, but I could not stop to acknowledge it before, & I am glad it did not arrive till I had completed my first sentence, because the sentence had been made since yesterday, & I think forms a very good beginning.”
– Jane Austen, in a letter to her sister, Cassandra, November 1, 1800
“A piece of writing is never finished, only abandoned.” My brother in law is always saying this– not sure where he got it from.
In an interview with Terry Pratchett in `The Writer’s Guide to Fantasy Literature’ he says “I think it was Esther Friesner who said you have to have tragic relief. If a book is nothing but funny…there’s no contrast”. I love the whole idea of `tragic relief’. Terry Pratchett is the master of this concept.
Chicory-That sounds like either Esther or Connie Willis, who’s also said wonderful things about writing comedy.
SA Cox – Google reveals that the original quote is “Art is never finished, only abandoned,” and it was Leonardo da Vinci who said it. Google does not reveal (at least, not with my limited Google-fu skills) the source of another quote that this called to mind: “It takes two people to produce a masterpiece: one to write it and one to hit him on the head with a hammer and take it away from him when he is finished.” It’s probably by that extremely wise and prolific author Anonymous.
Lol. Maybe I should hide the hammers!