Writing Quotes
-
I never consciously place symbolism in my writing. That would be a self-conscious exercise and self-consciousness is defeating to any creative act. Better to get the subconscious to do the work for you, and get out of the way. The best symbolism is always unsuspected and natural. During a lifetime, one saves up information which collects itself around centers in the mind; these automatically become symbols on a subliminal level and need only be summoned in the heat of writing.
-
I know that when I'm writing, I always want to be directing.
-
The challenge in writing the songs for The Aristocats truly fell on the animators & director of the film. Robert & I wrote the initial songs for the film, just prior to leaving full-time employment at the Walt Disney Studios. Therefore, some of the songs we wrote for The Aristocats were never used. I believe, therefore, the challenge fell upon the makers of the film to select what songs made the final cut.
-
I start with characters, and then I start writing, and then, if I'm lucky, things start to happen.
-
Every page was once a blank page, just as every word that appears on it now was not always there, but instead reflects the final result of countless large and small deliberations. All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another. And what grabs and keeps our interest has everything to do with those choices.
-
It's a complex thing when you're writing a novel, because so much of it is conscious and planned and deliberate, and so much of it is not, and it has to be a dance between the conscious and the unconscious. I bring my best instincts to my work. For instance - and I come by this naturally, or I think I do - I am a very good judge of character.
-
Once I've written something it does tend to run away from me. I don't seem to have any part of it - it's no longer my piece of writing.
-
And the nice thing about writing a novel is you take your time, you sit with the character sometimes nine years, you look very deeply at a situation, unlike in real life when we just kind of snap something out.
-
I love experimental writing, when it's good, and good examples are much more likely to be found in the short form.
-
I write music to please myself. Hopefully the director's enjoying it too.
-
Writing about the 1950s has given me tremendous respect for my mother's generation.
-
Fiction writing is just an excuse to go discover interesting things.
-
Every moment I choose to write about is one I have deemed important enough to dwell inside of and share with others. I am holding this moment up to the light and saying, "Wow, will you look at that?"
-
The act of writing, through its peculiar alchemy whereby the fruits of the mind are transformed into symbols intelligible to all literate minds—this is the greatest magic, perhaps.
-
Fiction shows us the past as well as the present moment in mortal light; it is an art served by the indelibility of our memory, and one empowered by a sharp and prophetic awareness of what is ephemeral. It is by the ephemeral that our feeling is so strongly aroused for what endures.
-
I'm more interested in moving toward writing stories - thinking about the graphic novel form, and just something more long-form. I did a lot of literary translation in college. Translation is an art. But for sure writing has always been a part of how I think through my ideas.
-
Every serious man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing. ... There does not exist, nor will there ever exist, any writing of mine dealing with this subject.
-
Write about what you know, and what do you know better than your own secrets?
-
My life is ruled by four W's: my writing, my work, my wife, and my whisky. Not necessarily in that order.
-
Deeply funny musings and adventures elevate Paul Rudnick to the highest level of American comedy writing.
-
I like to think of myself at home in the armchair, writing, smoking and occasionally wandering down the shop.
-
I'm probably one of the few authors in this country who could very comfortably live off my writing.
-
You write a book like that you're fond of over the years, then you see that happen to it, it's like pissing in your father's beer.
-
I was living in a loft with Dave Sitek - this loft full of people just working on their stuff. Some were painting, some were writing. Any plans you had were kind of like a plan for the next two months.
