Copy ImageI love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by
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There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you
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Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be
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We live and breathe words. .... It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them. Reading your words, what you wrote, how you were lonely sometimes and afraid, but always brave; the way you saw the world, its colors and textures and sounds, I felt--I felt the way you thought, hoped, felt, dreamt. I felt I was dreaming and thinking and feeling with you. I dreamed what you dreamed, wanted what you wanted--and then I realized that truly I just wanted you
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One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple
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Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it
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Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on
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History will be kind to me for I intend to write it
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All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know
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A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people
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If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something
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Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college
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Tears are words that need to be written
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If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster
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That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth
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Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff
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Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time
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Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher
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A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film
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So what? All writers are lunatics!
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The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself
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A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar
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Fiction is art and art is the triumph over chaos… to celebrate a world that lies spread out around us like a bewildering and stupendous dream
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This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to make it possible, endlessly possible. And when it’s just the two of you, alone in a room, you can pretend that this is how it is, this is how it will be
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One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper
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You always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending
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Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work
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On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken
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Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,
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Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it