E. L. Doctorow Quotes

E. L. Doctorow
E. L. Doctorow
American Author
Born: Jan 6, 1931
Died: Jul 21, 2015
Book Me People Think Writing You
Related authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald Frederick Douglass Helen Keller Henry David Thoreau Joyce Meyer Mark Twain Og Mandino Zig Ziglar
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow
You Writing Fog Way See Trip Only Driving Headlights Like Make As Far As Far Your Whole Night
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon. E. L. Doctorow
Good Writing Feeling Evoke Fact Good Writing Supposed Reader Sensation Being Rained Raining
The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like. E. L. Doctorow
You Will Tell Like Felt Historian Happened Novelist
It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow
You Car Way Further See Trip Never Driving Headlights Like Make Than Your Whole Night
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. E. L. Doctorow
Writing Schizophrenia Acceptable Form Socially
I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad. E. L. Doctorow
Experience Try Bad Most Avoid
Congress is so beholden to the money that any solution in the general interest will be frustrated and subverted by the corporate interests who feel they will be damaged by progress, fair play and justice. E. L. Doctorow
Justice Money Progress Will Congress Corporate Corporate Interests Solution General Feel Fair Fair Play Any Beholden Frustrated Interest Interests Who Play Damaged
Obama is a great man who's just beginning to understand the realities. And I'm not just saying that because he reads my books. I would have voted for him anyway. E. L. Doctorow
Saying Great Man Beginning Books Obama Would Great Man He Voted Him Because Understand Reads Just Anyway Realities
I discovered Einstein said the same thing about his celebrated theories of relativity that writers say about their work when he said he didn't have any feelings of personal possession of these ideas. Once they were out there, they came from somewhere else. And that's exactly the feeling when you write. You don't feel possessive about it. E. L. Doctorow
Work You Somewhere Feeling Feelings Same Thing Else Once Relativity Say Possession Possessive Out Exactly About Somewhere Else Write Writers He Feel Ideas Said Came Were His Discovered Celebrated Personal Same Any Einstein Theories Thing
Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. E. L. Doctorow
You People Writing About Outlining Write Talking None Doing Planning Researching
Here's how it goes: I'm up at the stroke of 10 or 10:30. I have breakfast and read the papers, and then it's lunchtime. Then maybe a little nap after lunch and out to the gym, and before I know it, it's time to have a drink. E. L. Doctorow
Time Before Breakfast Lunch Papers Out Stroke Gym Drink Know Nap Read How Up Goes Maybe After Little Then Lunchtime Here
I like commas. I detest semi-colons - I don't think they belong in a story. And I gave up quotation marks long ago. I found I didn't need them, they were fly-specks on the page. E. L. Doctorow
Long Think Gave Marks Detest Like Were Commas Up Quotation Story Them Page Found Belong Need
My theory about why Hemingway killed himself is that he heard his own voice; that he reached the point where he couldn't write without feeling he was repeating himself. That's the worst thing that can happen to a writer. E. L. Doctorow
Feeling Own Worst Worst Thing About Voice Point Write Writer He Reached Himself Without His Repeating Heard Where Happen Theory Hemingway Why Thing
Somewhere along the line the rhythms and tonalities of music elided in my brain with the sounds that words make and the rhythm that sentences have. E. L. Doctorow
Music Words Somewhere Along Make Sounds Line Brain Rhythm Rhythms Sentences
Books are acts of composition: you compose them. You make music: the music is called fiction. E. L. Doctorow
Music You Books Compose Composition Make Fiction Them Acts
People come out of the mid-west and go to the Ivy League. I kind of reversed the direction. E. L. Doctorow
People Out Kind Direction League Come Go Reversed Ivy Ivy League
I started on computers with 'Billy Bathgate,' a little orange screen with black letters. I thought it was really cool, but it actually slowed me up for a while because it's so easy to revise, I tended to stay on the same page. I've learned to discipline myself. E. L. Doctorow
Myself Me Discipline Thought Black Easy Stay Computers Learned Because Revise Up Same Orange Same Page Screen While Little Really Page Cool Billy Letters Actually Started
Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake. E. L. Doctorow
Time You Yourself Book People Sit Down Every Every Time Compose Composition Write Writers Hazard Just Stake Themselves Your Who
In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment. E. L. Doctorow
Life People Become State Relationships Intimate Fact Detriment Developed Most Always Governments Very Person Personal Personal Relationships Century Twentieth Twentieth Century
History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. E. L. Doctorow
History Generation People Myth Every Think Anew Writes Most End End Product Product Why Present
Writing is immensely difficult. The short forms especially. E. L. Doctorow
Writing Difficult Immensely Short Forms
A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to. E. L. Doctorow
Work You Though Find Able Someone More New Read Reader Begin May Your
I'm not the sort of writer who can walk into a party and take a look around, see who's sleeping with whom and go home and write a novel about society. It's not the way I work. E. L. Doctorow
Work Home Walk Party Society Sleeping Way See About Write Writer Take Look Sort Around Go Go Home Who Novel Whom
A period of time is as much an organising principle for a work of fiction as a sense of place. You can do geography, as Faulkner did, or you can dwell on a particular period. It provides the same framework. E. L. Doctorow
Work Time You Sense Framework Faulkner Particular Period Principle Geography Provides Did Same Dwell Fiction Place Much
Things that appear on the front page of the newspaper as 'fact' are far more dangerous than the games played by a novelist, and can lead to wars. E. L. Doctorow
Dangerous More Fact Lead Than Front Front Page Newspaper Far Page Games Wars Appear Novelist Things Played
I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority. E. L. Doctorow
Culture Feeling Lost Had Dominating Authority Did Storytelling Then
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