E. M. Forster Quotes

Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out.

E. M. Forster

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Quotes to Explore

• The first thing my writing ever earned me wasn't an advance on a book; it wasn't a fee for an article or anything like that. It was, in fact, a residency at Hedgebrook Farm.

  

  Dana Stabenow
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Me

• What gets people into trouble with records now is that they want to build something up without substantial musical ideas. Without that as a foundation, you can add all the layers of sound you want - it's still going to sound like a mess.

  

  Walter Becker Steely Dan
  • People
  • Up
  • Ideas

• 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

• Anthony Powell was the most European of 20th-century British novelists.

  

  Tariq Ali
  • Most
  • British
  • Novelists

• 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

• Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

  

  E. L. Doctorow
  • Writing
  • Learn
  • Start

• We're more interested in someone writing a really great answer that's going to be read by thousands or tens of thousands of people over the next few years as it stays on Quora and as it gets distributed on the Internet.

  

  Adam D'Angelo
  • People
  • Great
  • Writing

• I can sit and analyze everything and beat myself up and say you don't quite sing as good as you used to, you're writing better songs maybe than you used to, but to me it's just the journey.

  

  Vince Gill
  • Up
  • Good
  • Writing

• I am just doing photo shoots. It's not something that extraordinary. I'm not a great artist, I'm not writing books, I'm not a painter, and people in the streets ask me for a picture or a note, and I say, 'Why?'

  

  Carine Roitfeld
  • People
  • Great
  • Writing

• The ego being shattered is not what frightens me - that can be useful for writing - but the ego being inflated is sort of like it dying of gout.

  

  Garth Risk Hallberg
  • Writing
  • Dying
  • Ego

• As much as I enjoy traveling and playing on stage as an artist, I really find my true sense of purpose in a room writing a song.

  

  Sam Hunt
  • Writing
  • True
  • Song

• 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.

  

  E. B. White
  • Men
  • Writing
  • Man

• When I first came to the Bay area, I worked in Silicon Valley in the early to mid-'90s, and I think what mattered then was our ability as designers to create a vision around people's ideas.

  

  Yves Behar
  • People
  • Ideas
  • Vision

• 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

• Writing is agony. I hate it.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Writing
  • Hate
  • Agony

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

  

  Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Writing
  • Love
  • Book

• You don't have to be scared of me, because I am loyal. Why are people so scared of creative ideas and so scared of truth? All I want to do is do good.

  

  Kanye West
  • People
  • Good
  • Why

• For me, any book I'm writing is also a chance to get in and research and read and learn things that I maybe only knew a little bit about before.

  

  Tad Williams
  • Book
  • Chance
  • Learn

• Writing is so fun precisely because if you take out the right adjective, the readers can decide what kind of book is in their hands. Suspension of disbelief should not be mandatory in contemporary writing.

  

  Alvaro Enrigue
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Fun

• I'd wanted to be a writer and when I came back to New York worked as a musician too, but I found my writing starting to get more and more referential to cinema.

  

  Jim Jarmusch
  • Writing

• As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.

  

  Honore de Balzac
  • Writing
  • Coffee
  • Covered

• I think in France, for example, we can say whatever we want about the French, but going out and dining is more about the intellectual moment to share with the people you dine with than trying to figure out what the chef did with that little piece of salmon or lobster and all that.

  

  Daniel Boulud
  • People
  • Trying
  • Moment

• Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out.

  

  E. M. Forster
  • Writing
  • Ideas
  • Novelists