Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

Vladimir Nabokov

• Writing
• Character
• Tree
• Jobs

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Quotes to Explore

• As I'm writing, certain things become clear to me and certain things begin to feel right and make sense. The pieces start to fall into place.

  

  Candace Bushnell
  • Feel
  • Right
  • Sense

• I don't know how old I was when I started writing books. But, I was born in 1931, and I wrote my first book in 1961.

  

  Ed Emberley
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Know

• Well, I must tell you I write the scripts very close to the bone. So I'm writing episode seven now and couldn't tell you what happens in episode eight.

  

  Aaron Sorkin
  • Writing
  • You
  • Now

• I don't talk about Amy Winehouse as a 'singer.' She's a pioneer. I listened to her endlessly when I started writing.

  

  Laura Mvula
  • Writing
  • Talk
  • Singer

• I think that the idea that I'm writing for many more people than I ever imagined has created a certain general responsibility that is literary and political. There's even pride involved, in not wanting to fall short of what I did before.

  

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • People
  • Writing
  • Political

• When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

  

  W. Somerset Maugham
  • Character
  • Friends
  • Personality

• Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • Writing
  • Pain
  • Baby

• The demand in India is to have a hit, which becomes a promotion for the movie and makes people come to the theater. You have five songs and different promotions based on those. But when I do Western films, the need for originality is greater. Then I become very conscious about the writing.

  

  A. R. Rahman
  • People
  • Different
  • Writing

• Because I find writing painful, I try to get it over with as fast as possible. But I write every day, or I lose the thread.

  

  Patrick Modiano
  • Writing
  • Day
  • Everyday

• That's the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame.

  

  Wangari Maathai
  • Beautiful
  • Red
  • Tree

• I didn't necessarily have a total idea when I was writing the movie of where everything was going. I just wanted to have really realistic dialogue and write like people I knew talked. I tried to keep it very real.

  

  Zach Braff
  • People
  • Writing
  • Real

• There's always something more to be accomplished with a character. Theater is a human experience. There's nothing shellacked or finished off about it. I guess that's why it always draws me back.

  

  Sada Thompson
  • Character
  • Experience
  • Always

• A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.

  

  Saint Basil
  • Love
  • Man
  • Friendship

• One is made by all the things around one. There are many things that have made one. For a writer to go around looking for things that have made him is asking for trouble. It's like giving a character to yourself. Can't do it. Can't do it. These things are just there. Is that enough?

  

  V. S. Naipaul
  • Character
  • Giving
  • Yourself

• I'm very physical. When I'm writing, I'm playing all the parts; I'm saying the lines out loud, and if I get excited about something - which doesn't happen very often when I'm writing, but it's the greatest feeling when it does - I'll be out of the chair and walking around, and if I'm at home, I'll find myself two blocks from my house.

  

  Aaron Sorkin
  • Writing
  • Home
  • House

• When I graduated high school, I bought a guitar and, at first, didn't really think I'd get into the songwriting thing as much as I did. But after learning a few songs of other people's to play on the guitar, I got bored with that and just started writing songs on my own, and that's kinda how it came about.

  

  Sam Hunt
  • People
  • Writing
  • School

• As an actor, we always want people to write about us and talk about us. And when they are actually writing, then we say, 'Don't write about this.' I am an actor; I am a public property. I don't own myself; public owns me.

  

  Ranbir Kapoor
  • People
  • Writing
  • Myself

• I haven't always been a writer and I suppose I tiptoed around the idea of writing full time, because it's so isolating.

  

  Marisha Pessl
  • Time
  • Writing

• Finding myself a nice and likeable character is a complete change.

  

  Nicholas Young
  • Character
  • Change
  • Finding

• I can't resist a pretty plant. When I see it, I want it, I buy it, take it home, and plant it where ever I can find a place. If I had a similar moral code when it comes to romance, I would be divorced several times over by now. That is the reason I grow a cottage garden. I can stick everything in with complete abandon and no discrimination whatsoever.

  

  Cassandra Danz
  • Home
  • Reason
  • Moral

• Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again." "Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?" "Yes. I want to ruin you." "Good," I said. "That's what I want too.

  

  Ernest Hemingway
  • Enough
  • Said
  • Hell

• If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.

  

  Shinichi Suzuki
  • Children
  • Heart
  • Discipline

• The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

  

  Vladimir Nabokov
  • Writing
  • Character
  • Tree