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

• 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

• I'm disregarding all the rules I've seen as people approach writing music. I'm trying to break them.

  

  Verite
  • People
  • Music
  • Writing

• I used to think I'd like to be a fireman - in fact, I still would - and the only drawback I could see was coming back to the firehouse, after a day of fighting fires, and still having to put in an eight-hour day writing.

  

  David Mamet
  • Writing
  • Fighting

• A Train was born without any effort - if was like writing a letter to a friend.

  

  Billy Strayhorn
  • Writing
  • Friend
  • Effort

• Actors get pigeonholed very quickly, particularly movie actors. In the theater, one is more used to casting people against type and trusting that their talent and skill will get them through.

  

  Sam Mendes
  • People
  • Movie
  • Talent

• Neurologists have a host of clinical tests that let them observe what a brain-damaged patient can and cannot do.

  

  Floyd Skloot
  • Brain
  • Patient
  • Tests

• She is absolutely inadmissible into society. Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit.

  

  Oscar Wilde
  • Society
  • Past
  • Woman

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

  

  E. M. Forster
  • Writing
  • Ideas
  • Novelists