Nick Tosches Quotes
When I was young, I kept trying to read 'Moby-Dick', and I couldn't get that far into it. And I kept thinking, 'Well, man, if I can't read the great American novel, I could never be a writer.' And this bothered me a great deal.
Quotes to Explore
-
What other grown-up gets told how to do their job so often as a writer?
-
I am not an autobiographical writer.
-
I've basically worked as a journalist and a writer.
-
We never had books at home, but my dad, seeing how keen I was to read, took me to Islington Library when I was about eight and we pulled out two - a Biggles and a science fiction novel. I never got the ace fighter pilot but fell in love with all things to do with the future and space. Isaac Asimov soon became my guiding star.
-
I was a writer for hire. I wrote to pay the bills.
-
I never read about photography.
-
My mother taught me to read.
-
My grandmother died in childbirth, and my great-aunt lived with us. She had bound feet. She never knew how to read or write.
-
A writer has to live with a sense of honor.
-
I don't have my novel outlined, and I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it over again.
-
I'm not a writer where I feel particularly blessed by great inspiration every day. I don't. I have to work really hard at it to try and say the things I'm concerned with.
-
I love bookstores and booksellers. In my novel 'Dirty Martini,' I thanked over 3,000 booksellers by name in the back matter.
-
I would read all day if I could.
-
When I was 17 or 18 I wanted to become a wine expert, and my parents wouldn't let me drink. So I was devastated. All I could do was read, and I read and I read. And I'd read something like, you know, 'Subtle hints of cassis.'
-
There are three things that make a person a writer: inspiration, perspiration and desperation.
-
I'm not a great writer.
-
You can't believe everything you read. I am only six foot three, by the way.
-
I didn't know how to be a writer. But I thought, 'I can do this.'
-
If you want to accomplish twice as much, you have to work twice as hard.
-
I was active on Facebook for a while, responding to comments and thanking fans for their appreciation. But I found that the Facebook feed was numbing my emotions. I'd see an extraordinarily tragic news item, and even before I could react to it, see a hilarious meme right below it. This was confusing me.
-
Can I take a rain check? Weekends are busy for me." He shrugged, his perma smile back in all its dimpled glory. "You'd probably figure out a way to nearly get killed, anyway.
-
[at soundcheck in an empty hall] Good Evening Kreuth, thank you for coming so much...
-
When I was young, I kept trying to read 'Moby-Dick', and I couldn't get that far into it. And I kept thinking, 'Well, man, if I can't read the great American novel, I could never be a writer.' And this bothered me a great deal.
