P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

The Lampoon started in 1970, and I began writing freelance for them around the end of 1971, and then all through '72. They hired me in '73, and I left early in '81. I did everything from low puns to being editor-in-chief.

P. J. O'Rourke

• Writing
• Ends
• Editors

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Quotes to Explore

• I've got plenty of quirks. I go to an office early in the morning. Early in the morning is really good writing time. I take anywhere between six to eight showers a day. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not a germaphobe: it's all about a fresh start.

  

  Aaron Sorkin
  • Time
  • Good
  • Writing

• Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.

  

  Irwin Shaw
  • Writing
  • Football
  • Hurt

• When you're writing a story in bits and pieces, month in and month out, there really isn't time or space for reflection, no room to learn what those scripts had to teach you.

  

  J. Michael Straczynski
  • Time
  • Writing
  • Space

• 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 taught English and history, so my education for that really helped prepare me for writing historical fiction.

  

  Candace Camp
  • Writing
  • History
  • Education

• 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

• I like writing flawed women, and being one, it's something I feel I can write with some veracity and authority.

  

  Callie Khouri
  • Writing
  • Women
  • Feel

• 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

• 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.

  

  Candace Bushnell
  • Writing
  • Nature
  • Start

• People say, 'How does having kids change your writing? Do you see the world through their eyes?' No - you just become a faster songwriter... In the old days, you'd be like, 'Oh I'm gonna work on this song for a few days.'

  

  Eddie Vedder Pearl Jam
  • People
  • World
  • Work

• I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales, and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years.

  

  Mal Peet
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Year

• When you're writing, you are robbed of your delivery.

  

  Calvin Trillin
  • Writing
  • You
  • Delivery

• I love writing songs. I love doing my radio show and talking to the fans and listening to what they have to say, but there's a certain responsibility that comes along with being given the gift of music. I take that seriously, but at the same time I try to use it to do something that makes a difference in a positive way.

  

  Randy Owen
  • Time
  • Music
  • Writing

• Arendt did have a certain snobbishness, though in some of her writing she expressed more democratic attitudes.

  

  Barbara Sukowa
  • Writing
  • Democratic
  • Attitudes

• For me, writing is such an escape, and I felt very lucky to have this to run away to.

  

  Rachel Joyce
  • Writing
  • Me
  • Lucky

• I'm an intense guy. I run 10 miles a day, which helps alleviate my intensity. Also, singing helps defuse my intensity. Playing the piano helps, and writing helps.

  

  Dan Hill
  • Writing
  • Guy
  • Day

• Writing for me is quite a plastic form, a kind of mental sculpture, although that sounds weird. It acquires its character and its depth as it goes along.

  

  Kate Atkinson
  • Writing
  • Character
  • Weird

• Whether you want to entertain or to provoke, to break hearts or reassure them, what you bring to your writing must consist of your longings and disappointments.

  

  Rafael Yglesias
  • Writing
  • Want
  • You

• I didn't have that thing that Michael Bolton did; my star power - my charisma - was not a match to my writing ability.

  

  Dan Hill
  • Writing
  • Power
  • Star

• Never write about a place until you're away from it, because it gives you perspective. Immediately after you've seen something you can give a photographic description of it and make it accurate. That's good practice, but it isn't creative writing.

  

  Ernest Hemingway
  • Writing
  • Giving
  • Perspective

• Experience will guide us to the rules. You cannot make rules precede practical experience.

  

  Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  • Experience
  • Rules
  • Precede

• Nothing is more alluring to a man than a woman who looks good in her jeans.

  

  Nina Garcia
  • Woman
  • Jeans
  • Alluring

• The Lampoon started in 1970, and I began writing freelance for them around the end of 1971, and then all through '72. They hired me in '73, and I left early in '81. I did everything from low puns to being editor-in-chief.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Writing
  • Ends
  • Editors