John Mortimer Quotes

The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.

John Mortimer

• Writing

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Quotes to Explore

• I've been writing a lot of poetry recently. It helps me think and work things out.

  

  Ed Westwick
  • Work
  • Writing
  • Poetry

• 'Skins' is about a group of teenagers in Bristol, and it's all about what they get up to and all the different things they do. I think it's a good show because it's come from a very real place, and there's a lot of young people involved in the writing.

  

  Hannah Murray
  • People
  • Up
  • Good

• The beauty of 'The Hunger Games' and also 'Game of Thrones,' in fairness, both projects have really complex, three-dimensional, contradictory, strong women... The writing of female characters is extraordinary and equal to the men.

  

  Natalie Dormer
  • Men
  • Writing
  • Women

• Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.

  

  Irwin Shaw
  • Writing
  • Football
  • Hurt

• When you start writing about the stuff that is the central experience of your own life, you can talk about whatever you want, in whatever way you want.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • Life
  • Writing
  • Experience

• I was going to try to get into the creative writing program at Berkeley; it's just that the acting thing worked out.

  

  Mahershala Ali
  • Writing
  • Acting
  • Creative

• My highest point was the first thing I won, a short story competition in a women's magazine in the Eighties. It was the first time I'd had my writing validated, and the first thing I'd ever shown anyone else.

  

  Kate Atkinson
  • Time
  • Writing
  • Women

• I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales, and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years.

  

  Mal Peet
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Year

• I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that doesn't have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular, although many men are born upright.

  

  E. B. White
  • Men
  • Writing
  • Man

• Writing is a solitary journey, so I am always excited to go out on book tour and meet readers one-on-one.

  

  Dan Brown
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Journey

• I'm quite adept at writing two or sometimes even three stories at once. So if I get stuck on one story, I switch the next and let my subconscious work on unraveling any plot problems from another story.

  

  Zara Cox
  • Work
  • Writing
  • Problems

• The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.

  

  A. B. Yehoshua
  • Writing
  • Beginning
  • Process

• I mean, the wonderful thing about writing a book is that you're getting a finished product at the end of the day. You're communicating directly with the reader.

  

  Gary Ross
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Day

• When I'm writing, I spend all my time in The Grocer on Elgin buying ready-made meals; I think they are the only reason my husband and kids haven't left me.

  

  Sadie Jones
  • Time
  • Writing
  • Kids

• We all need to focus on our writing. Because the millions of readers out there don't care about your blog.

  

  J. A. Konrath
  • Writing
  • Focus
  • Care

• I thought writing about somebody current would be a little closer to what I'm used to doing.

  

  Adam Clymer
  • Writing
  • Thought
  • Doing

• The writing that feels the best to me, I experience sometimes, is a kind of weirdly deep listening - like, it feels like if you just listen hard enough, the next sentence will tell you what it needs to be.

  

  Garth Risk Hallberg
  • Writing
  • Experience
  • Best

• The nice thing about writing at home is that it's almost as though I'm doing it already. I get out of bed thinking of my work, and I don't have to go anywhere to do it.

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Work
  • Thinking
  • Writing

• I would say that Edgar Allan Poe, [Georges] Perec, Thomas Pynchon, and [Jorge Luis] Borges are all boy-writers. These are writers who take... a kind of demonic joy in writing.

  

  Paul Auster
  • Writing
  • Kind
  • Joy

• Do we want someone as secretary of state that is somehow tainted in this Benghazi issue?

  

  Jeff Duncan

• I just think it's great to show a gown that's $8,000 and a shoe that's, like, $25 - but still look fabulous together.

  

  Christian Siriano
  • Great
  • Together

• Mathematical knowledge is unlike any other knowledge. While our perception of the physical world can always be distorted, our perception of mathematical truths can’t be. They are objective, persistent, necessary truths. A mathematical formula or theorem means the same thing to anyone anywhere – no matter what gender, religion, or skin color; it will mean the same thing to anyone a thousand years from now. And what’s also amazing is that we own all of them. No one can patent a mathematical formula, it’s ours to share. There is nothing in this world that is so deep and exquisite and yet so readily available to all. That such a reservoir of knowledge really exists is nearly unbelievable. It’s too precious to be given away to the “initiated few.” It belongs to all of us.

  

  Edward Frenkel
  • Knowledge
  • Truths
  • Mathematical

• The real story of Facebook is just that we've worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.

  

  Mark Zuckerberg
  • Time
  • Real
  • Pretty

• The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.

  

  John Mortimer
  • Writing