O. Henry Quotes

I'll give you the sole secret of short-story writing, and here it is: Rule 1. Write stories that please yourself. There is no rule 2. The technical points you can get from Bliss Perry. If you can't write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.

O. Henry

• Writing
• Giving
• Secret

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Quotes to Explore

• Secret families are really the bedrock issue of Western literature.

  

  Tayari Jones
  • Literature
  • Secret
  • Western

• All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

  

  J. M. Coetzee
  • Writing
  • Storytelling

• I think everyone should approach relationships from the perspective of playing it straight and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Until he establishes that this is a game. And if it's a game, you need to win. The best thing to do is just walk away from the table.

  

  Taylor Swift
  • Game
  • Giving
  • Best

• I love writing journalism because it's all over in two hours and comes straight off the top of the head. Writing novels is soooooo much harder. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.

  

  Rachel Johnson
  • Writing
  • Done
  • Thing

• Many past products advertised in old publications can be profitably promoted all over again. Sometimes, just by giving them a new twist or modern application, you'll hit a real winner.

  

  E. Joseph Cossman
  • Real
  • Past
  • Giving

• I read my books to writing workshops and friends, and I'm often focussed just on keeping them entertained. I never think about marketing at all.

  

  Karen Joy Fowler
  • Writing
  • Friends
  • Marketing

• There's something different that happens when you're writing a song for your own record that you know you're going to sing.

  

  Beck
  • Different
  • Writing
  • Song

• I can be collaborative, for instance, in situations where I go and study the artist's work before I start writing. Then I can at least try to write towards their style.

  

  Warren Ellis
  • Work
  • Writing
  • Style

• Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner's inquest.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Giving
  • Wife
  • Marriage

• Historical fiction is actually good preparation for reading SF. Both the historical novelist and the science fiction writer are writing about worlds unlike our own.

  

  Pamela Sargent
  • Good
  • Writing
  • Science

• Writing is my way of expressing - and thereby eliminating - all the various ways we can be wrong-headed.

  

  Zadie Smith
  • Writing
  • Way
  • Expressing

• After a decade in public life working to stop Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons, I cannot support a deal giving Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief - in return for letting it maintain an advanced nuclear program and the infrastructure of a threshold nuclear state.

  

  Ted Deutch
  • Life
  • Giving
  • Support

• I don't like giving up hits and stuff, but I try not to show it. I don't want the hitter to see that something bothers me.

  

  Jacob deGrom
  • Up
  • Want
  • Giving

• I've been writing about my boyhood, when I was a little kid back on my grandfather's farm where we didn't know about black widow spiders or all that stuff. But writing about that is so easy.

  

  Kary Mullis
  • Writing
  • Black
  • Grandfather

• I wish the press were paying more attention to the erosion of the Constitution and the slippery slope that we're getting into, by giving up the right of the Congress to talk about when and how and where we go to war.

  

  Barbara Lee
  • Up
  • War
  • Giving

• When I'm writing, I'm just in it and trying to figure out what seems best.

  

  Patrick Ness
  • Writing
  • Trying
  • Best

• If I weren't a performer, I would be still be writing and songwriting. Plus, I also really want to get into producing.

  

  Manika
  • Writing
  • Want
  • Songwriting

• Just as I could tell you about my first Andre Norton novel or my first L'Engle or my first Asimov, I could write a paragraph about how each of these writers influenced me, my writing, and my thoughts, and do to this day.

  

  Pamela Dean
  • Writing
  • Day
  • Thoughts

• I'm one of those workaholics, the kind of guy who may drop with a cardiac arrest around 55.

  

  Joe Penny
  • May
  • Guy

• Work hard, earn a great living, get whatever you want out of life, have all the stuff you want. But there should be a ceiling on it-enough is enough!

  

  Sandy Duncan
  • Want
  • Enough
  • Should

• Any marijuana transaction I ever did with anyone, there were never any guns involved, ever.

  

  George Jung
  • Gun
  • Involved
  • Marijuana

• Three means by which God assures us that we do have eternal life: 1. The promises of His Word, 2. The witness of the Spirit in our hearts, 3. The transforming work of the Spirit in our lives.

  

  Jerry Bridges
  • Spirit
  • Promises
  • Transforming

• I don't believe in marriage. It's bloody impractical. 'To love, honor, and obey.' If it weren't, you wouldn't have to sign a contract.

  

  Katharine Hepburn
  • Believe
  • Marriage
  • Honor

• I'll give you the sole secret of short-story writing, and here it is: Rule 1. Write stories that please yourself. There is no rule 2. The technical points you can get from Bliss Perry. If you can't write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.

  

  O. Henry
  • Writing
  • Giving
  • Secret