Writers On Writing

"I love being a writer. What I hate is the paperwork.

--Peter De Vries

"Anytime you have a story about an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation, you are in business."

--Aaron Sorkin

"Fear is the highest fence."

--Dudley Nichols

"The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time."

--George Bernard Shaw

"You write a hit play the same way you write a flop."

"I think the young screenwriter should forget about trying to 'get in' and should focus entirely on being a good writer."

--Scott Frank

"The tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whiskey."

--William Faulkner

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."

--Elmore Leonard

"You shouldn't be doing it in order to speculate, hoping to get rich. You're not a prospector in the hills of California in 1849."

--Nicholas Kazan

"A new screenwriter can get a million dollars for a screenplay."

--Richard Donner

"The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business."

--John Steinbeck

"So when I write characters and situations and relationships, I try to sort of utilize what I know about the world, limited as it is, and what I hear from my friends and see with my relatives."

--Charlie Kaufman

"Fuck structure and grab your characters by the time balls."

--Jack Kerouac

"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit detector."

--Ernest Hemingway

"In my writing I tell the story of my life, over and over again."

--Isaac Bashevis Singer

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

--Ray Bradbury

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."

--James Michener

"The wastebasket is a writer's best friend."

--Isaac Bashevis Singer

"You are what you love. Not what loves you."

--Charlie Kaufman

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

--Mark Twain

"If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster."

--Isaac Asimov

"Why the bloody hell would anyone study writing from a guy who can't cut it as a writer?"

--Josh Olson