Writing Quotes

• At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.

• How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

• The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

• It is in their 'good' characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self-revelations.

• Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.

• I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.

• I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.

• Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.

• Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

• Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

• I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short.

• More than kisses, letters mingle souls.

• No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.

• Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

• Don't say it was 'delightful'; make us say 'delightful' when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers 'Please, will you do the job for me?'

• Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

• Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

• Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

• Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

• Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

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