Quotes about Writing

Posted on 02/21/2021 by Pisaries Creator

“I now know and trust completely that writing happens long before I ever type a word; that my best thinking and writing will happen before and after the first draft but not necessarily during it.”
-Alex Johnson-

“A true work of fiction…strikes us, in the end, not simply as a thing done but as a shining performance.”
-Johns Gardner-

“The great and only possible dignity of man lies in his power deliberately to choose certain moral values by which to live as steadfastly as if he, too, like a character in a play, were immured against the corrupting rush of time.”
-Tennessee Williams-

“The poet’s mission on earth is to inspire and to illuminate; and to leave behind our glorious descendants an intricate and varied map of humanity.”
-Marilyn Chin-

“The sonnet defends itself against the vicissitudes of fortune by its charmed structure, its beautiful bubble. All the while, though, chaos is lurking outside the gate.”
-Rita Dove-

“I think a little menace is fine to have in a story… There has to be tension, a sense that something is imminent, that certain things are in relentless motion, or else, most often, there simply won’t be a story.”
-Raymond Carver-

“What I do in writing of any character is to try to enter into the mind, heart, and skin of a human being who is not myself. It is the act of a writer’s imagination that I set most high.”
-Eudora Welty-