A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. ~ Charles Péguy
"Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelist's business is lying." - Ursula K. Le Guin, from the foreword to The Left Hand of Darkness
The most important thing in writing is to have written. I can always fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank one. - Nora Roberts
"A writer spends the first part of his or her career hoping to be discovered; the rest hoping not to be found out." -Mick Herron (dunno if he's a great writer, but this is a great quote about writing, sooo...)
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
The Iranian writer Dr. Shariati He died about 48 years ago. His biography is here, though I have not studied it in English and can't confirm all its contents. I also am not his follower because he had some personal beliefs that are not according to my original belief. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Shariati The heart that is not in love with anyone and needs love, takes the person anywhere following his missing one. God, freedom, art, and friend are waiting for him in his way. And he will fill that empty jug with which one?! In the period of ignorance, consciousness is a crime! Don’t wait for a bird to come and fly you, try to be a bird yourself! Love is the enjoyment of looking for your beloved! Freedom starts from your mind. There are many humans their hands and legs are not in a chain but imprisoned by their thoughts! When somebody is poor his goodness is not seen either, but the one who has gold and power, his failures are seen like art, and his junk words seem logical! Being human, responsible, clean, and thinking about the fates of others should be a duty. I never learned something from who was agree with me! I don’t want to know what will happen after my death and the potter what will make from my body, but I am very wishful after my death, the potter makes a whistle from my throat and gives it to a playful kid, and the kid blows the whistle nonstop with his warm breath and wakes up those who are asleep and thus breaks up the heavy silence! Up to the time we live we must live awake, because we will sleep later for many years compulsorily! A human is human as much as he thinks and as much as he creates, not as much as he eats other creatures! Be what you wish to be, but only be human! Love to one who is not worthy of love is wasting love! When I see no difficulty is on my way, I realize I’m going wrong! O God, make my heart so clean that before I take down my hands you approve my prayer. If you could not understand, you can be happy!! Love is not that you both get wet under the rain, love is that you get wet and your beloved not, and she never realizes why she didn’t get wet! I will never pollute my faith and love with wishing for life!
“And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about.” ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
"Try to preserve an author's style, if he is an author and has a style." Wolcott Gibbs, advising New Yorker editors about their job.
I don't know if you could call Nicholas Meyer a "famous writer" despite his Sherlock Holmes pastiches and the dozen of screenplays he's written, but I was reading his book The View From the Bridge: Memories of STAR TREK and a Life in Hollywood and came across this great truth about writing (or directing, or any art for that matter): :Artists are not the best --- and certainly not the definitive --- critics of their own work. Once that work is launched into the wide world, we lose all proprietary authority, and our opinions are of no more value than anyone else's. Possibly less. An author can't possibly follow his book into the hands of every reader, looking over his shoulder and telling him what to think about what he's read. Or what it means. Neither can a film director explain his intentions from the back of every theater where his film unspools. People will think what they're going to think, conclude what they will. The artist/author's opinion is simply and merely one additional viewpoint. The word 'definitive' has no place in artistic or literary dicussions. There is no such thing as a 'definitive' biography, any more than there can be a 'definitive' piano concerto or a 'definitive' apple by Cezanne." Of course, directors can explain their intentions from the back of every home theater nowadays., via the Directors commentaries on DVDs (for as long as that disappearing medium hangs around). They're the things that make DVDs so appealing to me as opposed to the streaming services. It's like getting a class in film-making as a freebie. And Roger Ebert's commentary on the deluxe editions of Casablanca are worth every penny as he explains the nuances of lighting and staging, and the brilliance of the actors themselves as they made decisions about their performances. And if you haven't viewed the edition of Spinal Tap with the commentary track from the rock group, please do so with all haste. Listening to the musicians commenting on their reactions to the mishaps in every scene is like seeing a second movie, as funny as the first one.
"No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy" There seems to be a parade of potential originators of this quote: (you pick the one you like best) Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz Dwight D. Eisenhower
I heard the quote as "No order of battle...." etc. It seems to make more sense from a military point of view.
He isn't a great writer, but Mike Tyson's version is Everybody Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Face
