Excellent thread all. Just wish I could write casual in my own style without breaking the rules. I just want to be understood and not misunderstood because I am slow of wit. curious Paul
“There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.” — Mark Twain
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” - Kurt Vonnegut “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun" - Picasso “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to." - Jim Jamusch “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein. found these on Goodreads in an amazing creativity quotes list, not all are writers, but a lot can resound with writers -http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/creativity?page=2
"No writer can be a pessimist" "A selfie is just a selfie" "I do nothing. It's an agony for my wife" "Don't I have another subject?" - Howard Jacobson
“It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words." - Anne Rice "One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple" -Jack Kerouac
This was posted on a different site - and my response was that it's pretentious twaddle - no one agreed with me and 3 people definitely thought me wrong. (For me Hemingway's shit detector comes to mind - otherwise i'm doing this writing lark all wrong.) "Once writing becomes an act of listening instead of an act of speech, a great deal of the ego goes out of it. Instead of self-consciously thinking about the sentence that 'I' have written, I find myself amazed and interested by the sentences that seem to want themselves written. Instead of being an act of pontification, writing becomes an act of revelation. This is true for any writer who lets writing write though him. We the writers, as much as any reader, are in for the treat of discovering what comes next." Julia Cameron.
I don't think I even understood that lol. I agree with you that this bit is pretentious twaddle. "lets writing write through him"? Nah. The words are mine. My mind's the one that's active and alive. "Writing" isn't sentient! Now that last bit, I can agree with - very often I do discover new things about myself, my thoughts, reasons, or my story through writing. And it is pretty cool
Thank you Mckk - although I tried to read the thing several times, I'm not sure I managed to retain my focus as far as the last bit.
"I'm still amazed how you can put your pen down and think not a line can be changed... You've finally got it right. You pick it up ten days later, and it's all so bad." From Peter Wier, Director but also screenwriter.
"Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at once … and space exists so that it doesn’t all happen to you." - Susan Sontang, At The Same Time - Essays and Speeches
"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country." - Kurt Vonnegut
Just came across this one - Give someone a book, they'll read for a day. Teach someone how to write a book, they'll experience a lifetime of paralyzing self doubt. (Lauren De Stefano) Maybe this is even more applicable if you remove the teach part.
my favorite one is: E.L. Doctorow — 'Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.'
“-Why does a man live? -In order to think about it...” - Remarque “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” - Stephen King
From “On Writing Well” (1976) by William Zinsser, who died May 12 at age 92: Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon. Who can understand the clotted language of everyday American commerce: the memo, the corporate report, the business letter, the notice from the bank explaining its latest “simplified” statement? What member of an insurance plan can decipher the brochure explaining the costs and benefits? What father or mother can put together a child’s toy from the instructions on the box? Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important. The airline pilot who announces that he is presently anticipating experiencing considerable precipitation wouldn’t think of saying it may rain. The sentence is too simple—there must be something wrong with it. But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank.
In addition to (the) large rules there are some little ones. These require that the author shall: Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it. Use the right word, not its second cousin. Eschew surplusage (!). Not omit necessary details. Avoid slovenliness of form. Use good grammar. Employ a simple and straightforward style. Mark Twain
"The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending -- the sad ending is sometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually the unsatisfying ending." -Orson Scott Card
“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.” - Kurt Vonnegut
As I began to look for post 14 from over a year ago, I thought you must either have an exceptionally adept memory, or a severe lack of worthwhile endeavors at the moment, forced to entertain yourself by policing the famous quote thread. Then I found #14, wondered how I could ever justify thinking ill of you even for a microsecond, and couldn't wait to give you a virtual high five. <---- @Lewdog
The problem with this quote is that it's utter bullshit. I respect Vonnegut a lot, but he's wrong here. Semicolons are cool, and they're making a comeback, baby!
