"I like for (narrators) to have hope--if a friend or a narrator reveals himself or herself to be hopeless too early on, I lose interest. It depresses me. It makes me overeat."--Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Category: #writingwisdom
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"I like (narrators) to be mentally ill in the same sorts of ways that I am; for instance, I have a friend who said one day, 'I could resent the ocean if I tried,' and I realized that I love that in a guy."--Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"(Narrators) shouldn't be too perfect; perfect means shallow and unreal and fatally uninteresting. I like for them to have a nice sick sense of humor and to be concerned with important things..."--Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"I like for narrators to be like the people I choose for friends, which is to say that they have a lot of the same flaws as I. Preoccupation with self is good, as is a tendency toward procrastination, self-delusion, darkness, jealousy, groveling, greediness, addictiveness."--Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"Once weaned from the ephemeral craving for TV, most people will find they enjoy the time they spend reading. I'd like to suggest that turning off that endlessly quacking box is apt to improve the quality of your life as well as the quality of your writing."--Stephen King, On Writing
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"...if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway."--Stephen King, On Writing
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"Reading is the creative center of a writer's life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in."--Stephen King, On Writing
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"The writer is more concerned to know than to judge."--W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"In giving to the character of his invention flesh and bones, (the writer) is giving life to that part of himself which finds no other means of expression. His satisfaction is a sense of liberation."--W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017
"The character of a scoundrel, logical and complete, has a fascination for his creator which is an outrage to law and order...It may be that in his rogues the writer gratifies instincts deep-rooted in him, which the manners and customs of a civilised world have forced back to the mysterious recesses of the subconscious."--W. Somerset … Continue reading Quintessential Quotes: #writingwisdom–Writealready2017