Nancy Mairs Quotes

Writing is not, alas, like riding a bicycle: it does not get easier with practice.

Nancy Mairs

• Writing
• Practice
• Riding

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Quotes to Explore

• The more I go on in this career of making albums, writing songs and playing music, the more I think of each album as a movie. I really wanted to make a film, but making a film is much more expensive than making a record.

  

  J. D. Souther
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Movie

• Hard writing makes easy reading.

  

  Wallace Stegner
  • Writing
  • Reading
  • Easy

• Black people were very angry with me for writing the book. A lot of people didn't believe me, or didn't want to believe me, and that used to really bother me. It was a very painful and difficult time.

  

  LaToya Jackson
  • People
  • Time
  • Believe

• When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, 'Oh yes - I already have everything that I really need.'

  

  Dalai Lama
  • Desire
  • Practice
  • Yourself

• 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 studied philosophy, religious studies, and English. My training was writing four full-length novels and hiring an editor to tear them apart. I had enough money to do that, and then rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.

  

  Ted Dekker
  • Writing
  • Money
  • Religious

• I love writing two narratives! I think concurrent storylines are my favorite way to write a book.

  

  Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Writing
  • Love
  • Book

• Instead of writing songs for girls, I tend to write albums, which I guess is a bit weird.

  

  Ed Sheeran
  • Writing
  • Weird
  • Write

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

  

  A. B. Yehoshua
  • Writing
  • Beginning
  • Process

• However far fiction writers stray from their own lives and experiences - and I stray pretty far from mine - I think, ultimately, that we may be writing what we need to write in some way, albeit unconsciously.

  

  Wally Lamb
  • Writing
  • May
  • Think

• I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction.

  

  Irvine Welsh
  • Writing
  • Like
  • More

• One thing I've had to realize in my career is that I can't do it all. Sometimes we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make sure we're writing the next hit. There are other people out there, and that's what they do every day, and they have strengths that I don't have.

  

  Randy Houser
  • People
  • Writing
  • Career

• I don't feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music, and writing songs. That's what I do. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it.

  

  Van Morrison
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Hate

• The hardest thing about writing a script is you finish it, but it doesn't mean anything. It's not like a novel or short story - a script is meant to be made into a movie.

  

  Maggie Carey
  • Writing
  • Movie
  • Short

• By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication.

  

  Ralph Ellison
  • Writing
  • Identity
  • Communication

• All good writing comes out of aloneness.

  

  Sam Shepard
  • Good
  • Writing
  • Good Writing

• I enjoy writing. Publishing... not so much. I've been lucky to work with some very talented people in the publishing world, and the print industry has allowed me to write full time.

  

  J. A. Konrath
  • People
  • Time
  • World

• Writing has to support itself.

  

  V. S. Naipaul
  • Writing
  • Support
  • Itself

• I really don't think records should be made in the manner where you sit and write, and when you're finished writing, you start recording. That just seems conventional and old-fashioned to me.

  

  James Lee Lindsey Jr.
  • Writing

• Building out a professional profile on LinkedIn certainly makes sense, and bolstering that CV with intelligent pieces of writing is also a great idea. But if you're going to take the time to create content, you should also take the time to create a home for that content that is yours and yours alone.

  

  John Battelle
  • Time
  • Great
  • Writing

• I think that Paul Gasol is the most skilled big man in the NBA today with his ability to post on either block, the way he runs the floor, and the way he can shoot the mid-range jump shot.

  

  Doug Collins
  • Today
  • Jump

• Of course, I'm not allowed to talk about the script, but I can say it is a really good story.

  

  Aaron Stanford
  • Good
  • Story
  • I Can

• Writing is not, alas, like riding a bicycle: it does not get easier with practice.

  

  Nancy Mairs
  • Writing
  • Practice
  • Riding