2371 Writer Quotes for You to Enjoy

I come from a council estate in Tower Hamlets, and by no means am I the only person who has done well - one of my friends is head of year in a great school in Twickenham. Another is a writer; another is an artist, a musician. Eddie Marsan

Part of my problem as a young writer was that I was too much a New Yorker, always second-guessing the 'market.' I became so discouraged that I decided to write something that would please me alone - that became my sole criterion. And that was when I wrote 'Forgetting Elena,' the first novel I got published. Edmund White

Alone Me Problem Too Much First Discouraged Young Too Market Please Sole Criterion Would Something Write Writer Part New Wrote Became Always Got Yorker Forgetting New Yorker Decided Much Novel Published

The French are pretty thin-skinned. The few times I mentioned a French writer in 'City Boy,' the relatives would ring up in high dudgeon. I once wrote a mocking review of Marguerite Duras in the 'New York Review of Books,' and good friends of mine in France got very angry. Edmund White

Good Angry Relatives Few Good Friends Books Once France Mine High Would Ring City Pretty Mentioned Writer New French Wrote Boy Got Review Up Friends Very Mocking Times York New York

I never liked my father. He really was a dullard and misanthrope. My mother and he were married for 22, years and it was an ill match. She encouraged me to be a writer. She opened her home to black friends, and this was the 1950s. She didn't care later when I write about her. Edmund White

Home Me Mother Care Father Black Later Married About Write Writer Never He Opened Liked She Match Were Years Encouraged Friends Really Ill Her

A straight writer can write a gay novel and not worry about it, and a gay novelist can write about straight people. Edmund White

Gay People Worry About Write Writer Straight Straight People Novel Novelist

I can think of no other writer who so thoroughly embodies the Jamesian spirit as Alison Lurie. Like him she can excavate all the possibilities of a theme. Like his, her books seem long, unbroken threads, seamless progressions of effects. Edmund White

My mother was terribly invasive, all in the name of psychiatric honesty. It was a bad thing in some ways, but I do think it had the effect of making me interested in 'the truth' as a writer - more than beauty, more than having a shapely story. Edmund White

I wanted to be a soccer player, and I became the best of the best, the number one, better than Maradona, better than Pele, and even better than Messi - but only at night, nighttime, during my dreams. When I wake up, I realized that I have wooden legs and that I'm doomed to be a writer. Eduardo Galeano

A writer's work is to witness things. Edward Hoagland

Work Witness Writer Things

I see the author as the person who has written; the writer, the one involved in the process of writing. And they're not necessarily friends. The writer is the one I want to reinforce; the author would just feed on the reviews - so I'm in favour of starving him. Edward St Aubyn

There are so many ways of posturing that people associate with being a writer. They imagine you wearing a beret and drinking only red wine and being full of yourself, and so, for a long time, the way I felt about writing was too private. I felt it too important and didn't want to be teased about it. So I lied about it. Eleanor Catton

Time You Yourself People Writing Wine Long Drinking Long Time Important Too Way Ways Lied Wearing About Only Writer Red Red Wine Felt Private Being Want Full Many Teased Associate Imagine

I'm Turkish-American; I was a freshman at Harvard in 1995 and 96. I did teach English in Hungary in the summer of 1996. I'm an autobiographical writer in the sense that whether in fiction or nonfiction, the issues and relationships and phenomena and problems I'm most interested in exploring are the ones I've experienced personally. Elif Batuman

Problems Hungary Sense Relationships Summer Harvard Writer Most Nonfiction Freshman Issues Did Autobiographical Experienced Fiction Whether Interested Personally Teach Exploring English Phenomena

It is tiring to be Turkish. The country is badly polarised, bitterly politicized. Every writer, journalist, poet knows that because of an article, a novel, an interview, a poem or a tweet you can be sued, put on trial, even arrested. Self-censorship is widespread. Elif Safak

You Poet Journalist Country Every Interview Trial Poem Writer Badly Put Self-Censorship Knows Because Arrested Article Tiring Turkish Tweet Even Novel Sued Widespread

I definitely want to do more movies, and I'm also a writer, so I have a few screenplays that I'm working on, one of them based off my one-woman show that I used to do in New York. Two of the screenplays I've written by myself, and then I'm also working on one with my writing partner, Tom Riley, who's in London. Eliza Coupe

Myself Writing Partner Few Definitely London One-Woman More Writer Written New Also Off York New York Want Screenplays Movies Them Then Working Used Show Tom Based Two

When I write, I operate as a writer and a reader both - I never know what's going to happen. Elizabeth Berg

Both Write Writer Never Know Operate Reader Going Happen

I think the most important quality for a writer to have is empathy. Elizabeth Berg

Quality Important Think Writer Empathy Most The Most Important

For me as a writer, it's so joyful to know that someone hears and responds to what I write. Elizabeth Berg

Me Responds Someone Write Writer Joyful Know Hears

The importance to the writer of first writing must be out of all proportion of the actual value of what is written. Elizabeth Bowen

Writing Value First Out Must Proportion Writer Written Importance Actual

Every writer hopes his or her book will be its own thing. Elizabeth Kostova

Book Will Own Every Hopes Writer His Her Thing

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