Art of writing quotes:

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The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. -- Gustave Flaubert
The ancient codes were doubtless originally suggested by the discovery and diffusion of the art of writing. -- Henry James Sumner Maine
There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing. -- Clarence Day
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. -- Cyril Connolly
I want my art to make people look at the world in a new way. I mean, what's the point of the art of writing if it doesn't take you into the mysterious? -- John Banville
The great art of writing is knowing when to stop. -- Josh Billings
I do like the research part of writing, I must admit. -- C. J. Box
The art of writing is mysterious, the opinions we hold are ephemeral.... -- Jorge Luis Borges
The art of writing has for backbone some fierce attachment to an idea. -- Virginia Woolf
I definitely have loads of respect for writers and the art of writing. -- Molly Shannon
I find coming up with a title the hardest part of writing a novel. -- Sara Shepard
Programming is the art of writing essays in crystal clear prose and making them executable -- Per Brinch Hansen
The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words. -- Logan Pearsall Smith
Whatever may be our natural talents, the art of writing is not acquired all at once. -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for the wordlessness. -- John Steinbeck
Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times. -- Patricia Reilly Giff
The most exciting part of writing a novel is when the characters take control of the story -- Brandt Legg
The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. -- Mary Heaton Vorse
The art of writing fiction is to sail as dangerously close to the truth as possible without sinking the ship -- Kinky Friedman
The art of writing is to explain the complications of the human soul with the simplicity that can be universally understood. -- Alan Sillitoe
Achilles exists only through Homer . Take away the art of writing from this world , and you will probably take away its glory . -- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand
The worst part of writing is meeting all these great new characters and having no one to talk about (the adventures you share with) them. -- Claudia Bakker
Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the art of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like anything else -- Ursula K. Le Guin
My favourite part of writing a book is thinking up the ideas, and that can start a long time before I actually sit down at my desk. -- Anthony Horowitz
For me, the dialogue is the easiest part of writing. It just always seems so obvious what a character will say. Maybe it's because I talk too much! -- Julia Quinn
the art of reading hardly differs from the art of writing, in that its most intense pleasures and pains must remains private, and cannot be communicated to others. -- Joyce Carol Oates
The hardest part of writing is the first draft, and the closer you get to your deadline, the messier your workspace becomes - but that's the same with any creative outlet. -- Tess Gerritsen
That is the best part of writing: finding the hidden treasures, giving sparkle to worn out events, invigorating the tired soul with imagination, creating some kind of truth with many lies. -- Isabel Allende
The hardest part of writing 'William Shakespeare's Star Wars' was probably the sheer amount of iambic pentameter and tiptoeing around certain scenes I knew would be hot-button issues for 'Star Wars' fans. -- Ian Doescher
I would fix other people's lines if they asked me on occasion. The hard part of writing is the architecture of it, getting the story and structuring it. Not the tweaking of lines. -- William Devane
Besides the soothing effect it has, I think my favorite part of writing is being able to use my imagination and creativity to make new ideas and people and situations come to life. -- Christopher Paul Curtis
Part of writing a novel is being willing to leap into the blackness. You have very little idea, really, of what's going to happen. You have a broad sense, maybe, but it's this rash leap. -- Chang-Rae Lee
I think the hardest part of writing is revising. And by that I mean the following: A novelist has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it. -- Chaim Potok
I make up names for people all the time - it's part of writing. Very often, the name comes with the character, along with of a sense of who they are and what they do. -- Nick Harkaway
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile. -- Robert Cormier
Many great authors of the 19th century wrote under conditions of strict censorship. The great thing about the art of writing a novel, is that you can write about anything. All you have to say is that it's fiction. -- Orhan Pamuk
For me, a big part of writing psychological thrillers is choosing crimes committed for motives which would only apply to a particular person in a particular situation; a unique, one-off motive that is born out of someone's particular range of psychological afflictions. -- Sophie Hannah
It has taken me years of struggle, hard work and research to learn to make one simple gesture, and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple, beautiful sentence. -- Isadora Duncan
The hard part of writing at all is sitting your ass down in a chair and writing it. There's always something better to do, like I've got an interview, sharpening the pencils, trimming the roses. There's always something better to do. Going to a writer's club? -- Jerry Pournelle
There's always that moment when you realize what it's going to be. You might have an overarching theme and you need to fill in the blanks - and then there's this "Aha" moment when you see where it's going. That's the most satisfying part of writing. -- Rosanne Cash
You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life; the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it. -- Doris Lessing
An exquisite invention this, Worthy of Love's most honeyed kiss,-- This art of writing billet-doux-- In buds, and odors, and bright hues! In saying all one feels and thinks In clever daffodils and pinks; In puns of tulips; and in phrases, Charming for their truth, of daisies. -- Leigh Hunt
You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it. -- Doris Lessing
I find the most difficult part of writing is to get it down initially because what you have written is usually so terrible that it's disheartening; you don't want to go on. That's what I think is hard - the discouragement that comes from seeing what you have done. -- James Salter
The core of my writing is not art but truth. -- Philip K. Dick
Writing is my job. I don't think of it as art. -- Isabel Allende
The default mode of modern writing about art is to despise any notion of singularity as so much overheated genius-fetishism. -- Simon Schama
It seems to me that many writers, by virtue of environments of culture, art and education, slip into writing because of their environments. -- Robert E. Howard
I like writing letters and receiving letters. It's a shame that we've lost the art of letter-writing and saving correspondence. I mourn that. -- Elizabeth McGovern
Writing, more than any other art, is indexed to the worthiness of the self because it is identified in people's minds with emotion. -- Rachel Cusk
Romanticizing the act of writing or any other art is not very helpful to the artist or the art. It's much better if one simply does. -- Anne Roiphe
Writing is truly a creative art - putting word to a blank piece of paper and ending up with a full-fledged story rife with character and plot. -- William Shatner
I mean, certainly writing, painting, photography, dance, architecture, there is an aspect of almost every art form that is useful and that merges into film in some way. -- Sydney Pollack
Writing is no dying art form in America because most published writers here accept the wisdom and the necessity of encouraging the talent that follows in their footsteps. -- Elizabeth George
Artists don't talk about art. Artists talk about work. If I have anything to say to young writers, it's stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work. -- Paddy Chayefsky
In my mind, the plays I was writing were extreme examples of art for art's sake. I didn't necessarily think that other people would love them, though I thought they probably would. -- Wallace Shawn
It's been noted that writing about the production of art is a masquerade or metaphor for writing about writing. This may be true, there are similarities - both the verbal and the visual represent the thing or the concept. -- Sarah Hall
Because I'm an art historian, I have some experience of writing that comes out of close attention. That's what really art history is. You're looking at something very closely, and you try to write in a meticulous way about it. -- Teju Cole
The silver lining of those years when I was trying to get 'Tinkers' published but couldn't were the years when I had to decide, Why do I want to be a writer? I realized that writing is the thing itself; writing is not a means to publication, writing is not a predicate of publication, so I spent years making art for art's sake. -- Paul Harding
Writing is also an art. -- Marc Mullo
Writing and art are my lovers -- Edna Stewart
Headline writing is an art form. -- Jennifer Lee
Writing is a craft not an art. -- William Zinsser
Writing good dialogue is art as well as craft. -- Stephen King
Great writing can be done in biography, history, art. -- V. S. Naipaul
When art writing seems incomprehensible, chances are it is. -- Walter Darby Bannard
When I started writing about art, there were no curators. -- Waldemar Januszczak
Writing is the art of repeating oneself without anyone noticing. -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
In writing, there is art. And in art there is craft -- Susi Moore
Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat. -- Dorothy Parker
In writing, there is art. And in art, there is craft -- Susi Moore
Writing is possibly an art but crime writing is definitely a craft. -- Ashwin Sanghi
Writing is possibly an art, but crime writing is definitely a craft. -- Ashwin Sanghi
Writing is largely about time, while visual art is largely about space. -- Douglas Coupland
Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation. -- Jasper Fforde
Writing, like drawing is an art, and whatever conveys the meaning is justified. -- Maxwell Perkins
Writing for children is an art in itself, and a most interesting one. -- Enid Blyton
When it comes to performing and entertaining, the art removes itself from the writing. -- Scott Avett
Writing is the one art form that really should allow you to hang yourself. -- Peter Sotos
Writing about art is only useful when it leads to the experience of art. -- Walter Darby Bannard
Writing, like any art, is a continuing process of discovering the infinite possibilities of Life. -- Hubert Selby, Jr.
Characters last. Beautiful writing lasts. A compelling narrative lasts. Art survives long after ideas go extinct.... -- Joel Achenbach
I'm trying to get every man involved in art, into experimental music, or painting, or novel-writing." -- Harvey Pekar
Writing is an abstract art of drawing pictures of the conscious and subconscious mind with words. -- Debasish Mridha
Throughout my life I have taken detours in acting and writing, but art remains my abiding passion. -- Gloria Vanderbilt
I haven't ever found any great writing on that wonderful and often unappreciated art form, the insult. -- Dick Cavett
Use the creative process - singing, writing, art, dance, whatever - to get to know yourself better. -- Catie Curtis
Art was something that I was really interested in, probably more so than writing or anything else. -- Robert Barry
Songwriting as an art is a bit archaic now. Just writing a song is not good enough. -- David Bowie
Writing is a divine art, and the more I write and read the more I love it. -- Virginia Woolf
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those who move easiest have learned to dance. -- Alexander Pope
Writing is a creative art form and the acting and directing is more of an interpretive art form. -- Clint Eastwood
Don't apologize, justify or rationalize bad art or bad writing. If you do, you are part of it. -- Walter Darby Bannard
That's one of the nice things about writing, or any art; if the thing's real, it just lives. -- Woody Allen
Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling. -- William Bernbach
I've always had standards about writing well. There is art in this business. There is potentially great art. -- Gay Talese
Despite all our toil and progress, the art of medicine still falls somewhere between trout casting and spook writing. -- Ben Hecht
Perhaps this is the purpose of all art, all writing, on the murders, fiction and non-fiction: Simply to participate. -- Alan Moore
Artists don't often know much about writing... but they don't bray so much about writing as writers do about art. -- Matthew Collings
The craft of writing is the art of penetrating other minds with the figures that are in your own mind. -- John Steinbeck
Publishing is a business. Writing may be art, but publishing, when all is said and done, comes down to dollars. -- Nicholas Sparks
Art is action. The way I live my life to its highest degree is by writing, the practice of art. -- Ursula K. Le Guin
Writing, at least a craft and at its best an art, aspiring to the unique, is the most difficult to learn. -- Jacques Barzun
Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer. -- Clive James
The art and act of writing - speaking just for myself - involves getting your proverbial ass in the proverbial chair. -- Jerry Stahl
There is an art to writing, and it is not always disclosure. The act itself can be beautiful, revelatory, and private. -- Terry Tempest Williams
Writing as an art form belongs to all people, regardless of economic class or educational level. . . . A writer is someone who writes. -- Pat Schneider
Writing is a channeling of an individual experience; so is reading. That's what's so exciting about this art form - it's interactive. -- T.C. Boyle
As a total activity - I practice curating, art, architecture, writing, and publishing all together. I still act as a living creature. -- Ai Weiwei
Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all. -- Ray Bradbury
I think all writing about art is in some way dancing to architecture. It's all about similitude, being analogous, metaphorical, adjectival, etc. -- Rob Chapman
Somebody informed me recently that the key to every art, from writing to gardening to sculpture, is creativity. I beg to differ. -- Roy Blount, Jr.
All art began as sacred art, you know? I mean, all painting began as religious painting. All writing began as religious writing. -- Salman Rushdie
It's possible I am the only art critic that a lot of people read. And maybe Robert Hughes, if he's still writing. -- Peter Schjeldahl
If you schlep a shit job everyday, keep and feed a little secret life--whether it's writing, art, running, music, your thoughts. It's yours. -- Don Roff
Writing, more than any other art, is indexed to the worthiness of the self because it is identified in peoples minds with emotion. -- Rachel Cusk
The dirty secret of art is you don't have to show people your bad writing. That's what we have the delete key for. -- Robert McKee
A series is a big deal, and there are a lot of people out there writing stuff that don't know what art is. -- Aden Young
Publishing is a business and writing is an art. The two have to be crammed together despite the clearly different motivations behind them. -- Michelle M. Pillow
I was a fine arts major in college, and a painter for many years. And I found that, like writing, art is very similar. -- Kami Garcia

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