Ed McBain Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.
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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.
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Peter Sellers was just a brilliant actor, and also comedic.
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I like writing about biology, not doing it.
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I've been writing fiction probably since I was about 6 years old, so it's something that is second nature to me now. I just sit down and start writing. I don't sit down and start writing and it comes out perfectly - it's a process.
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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.
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Special-interest magazines are dangerous places for writers to start out in because the writing quickly falls into a routine and people are likely to find themselves artistically exhausted when they want to work on something of their own.
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I'm no actor, and I've got 64 pictures to prove it.
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Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
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Musical types tend to combine the burden of the author with the burden of the actor.
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Every actor wants more offers, but I get enough and I do like to be busy.
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The fault lines are shifting from the boundaries of nations into the web of our societies and the streets of our cities. And, terrorism and extremism are a global force that are larger than their changing names, groups, territories and targets.
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I have been writing fairy tales for as long as I can remember. Not much has changed in terms of my natural attraction to the narrative techniques of fairy tales. My appreciation of them in the traditional stories has deepened, especially of flat and unadorned language, intuitive logic, abstraction, and everyday magic.
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I did not go to any creative writing workshop; I did not major in literature. If I can write, anyone can write. All it needs is imagination.
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All art is propaganda, and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.
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I've done stuff to pay my dues and that's what actors are supposed to do, because I was a really bad actor when I was 18 or 20.
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Outside of family, writing is essential. To me, it's like breathing.
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I started writing short stories. I tried writing horror, mystery, science fiction. I joined a little critique group here in town and ran my stories past them. After about three years, I tackled my first novel, Subterranean. It took me 11 months to write.
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When a writer is already stretching the bounds of reality by writing within a science fiction or fantasy setting, that writer must realize that excessive coincidence makes the fictional reality the writer is creating less 'real.'
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I don't want anyone reading my writing to think about style. I just want them to be in the story.
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Teaching was great for me, because I got to show people how writing can really change the way you see not only yourself but the world.
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And it's a human need to be told stories. The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible.
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Changing writing styles is like an actor taking on a different part.
