Writing Quotes
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My secret for writing is going back to clarity. I'm very clear about what I want to accomplish-the goal-and then the next two are focus and concentration. And I've probably spent my whole life both practicing those two and teaching them. Focus. Focus on a single point and concentration. And concentrating on a single thing till it's done.
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People didn't like me; I was loud and aggressive. People can take it from a 42-year-old, but when you're a little kid, and people are like, 'You're loud and awful,' you think, 'I guess I am awful,' so writing and figuring out how to put things into words was the way I felt better.
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I also started writing songs because I had this burning activity in my heart and had to express myself.
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I started writing it the day after Sept. 11. I was living in New York City. We didn't have any phone service and we didn't have any mail. Like a lot of writers do, I started to write in a voice that I missed.
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I am interested in politics but have stayed away from writing overtly political songs, or message songs, because I find it difficult to discuss politics intelligently in a 4-minute song. But I am finding there are ways to get bits and pieces of political thought across without preaching that the people have the power or we shall not be moved. Of course these sentiments have their place too - I'm not knocking Phil Ochs - but that's a different kind of music, songs to play at rallies, not to achieve a state of bliss.
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Fred Wilson is a legendary VC and the Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures in New York City. At AVC, he writes one of the most popular startup blogs and covers issues from negotiation to hiring to fundraising. He's a machine for dispensing helpful advice and insightful commentary for those in our industry.
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I like writing my own stuff. If a book came along I would maybe do that.
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The main problem with writing in verse is, if your fourth line doesn't come out right, you've got to throw four lines away and figure out a whole new way to attack the problem. So the mortality rate is terrific.
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Real seriousness in regard to writing being one of the two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent.
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As I grow old I hate the writing of letters more and more, and like getting them better and better.
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Writing for young readers is almost like dipping into a fountain of youth; for hours a day, I am a child again.
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I was really surprised at the success of 'House of Sand and Fog,' because it is so awfully dark. Believe it or not, when writing it, I never had the word 'tragedy' in my head - I wasn't trying to write a dark book at all.
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After writing several chapter books, I found my true passion: historical fiction.
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I'm good at melody - I'll write the top-line melody and ideal words I want to go with it. But I'm not that good at writing lyrics. I bounce those back and forth with songwriters or someone who can sing.
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I'm interested in writing that explores all sides of human beings.
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I've tried to reduce profanity but I reduced so much profanity when writing the book that I'm afraid not much could come out. Perhaps we will have to consider it simply as a profane book and hope that the next book will be less profane or perhaps more sacred.
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There's nothing wrong with the screaming style of singing, and I'll be the first to admit that it conveys an emotion. But I'm getting older, and I can't scream and shout about the same things anymore. The songs I'm writing with Stone Sour call for a lighter, different approach.
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I want to write an essay called "Fear of Mexico," because I always feel like Mexico's this lover that never writes to me.
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The higher processes are all processes of simplification. The novelist must learn to write, and then he must unlearn it; just as the modern painter learns to draw, and then learns when utterly to disregard his accomplishment, when to subordinate it to a higher and truer effect.
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I suppose writing nonfiction did prepare me for writing fiction. Whenever you write anything, you're honing your skills for writing anything else.
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When I was writing my first two books I was also freelancing and teaching and doing other odd jobs.
Curtis Sittenfeld -
I'm very comfortable writing in the first person; it dives into the character in a way that's difficult if you're writing in the third person.
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A good novel is a good novel, pointe finale. And I think what I'm writing is exactly that.
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The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It's not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.
