Speculative Fiction for the Web
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror homeWelcome to our QUOTES page.
Life, writing and the writing life!
|
|
Story 
|
|
We have a variety of t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and mousepads, featuring the covers of my books.
|
Thanks for visiting. We also have FREE science fiction, fantasy, & horror stories, a FREE preview and reviews of the epic fantasy novel "Ily's Dream", a FREE contest, lots of funny jokes, plus a full page of free stuff!
"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations." -Isaac D'Israeli"The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit." W. Somerset Maugham"Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them." - John Updike"In my wildest imagination, I imagined being published. The next fantasy -- and you get greedier with your fantasies - is 'Oh God, this is being published, I hope somebody will read it.' And the fantasies grow from there." -- Judy Blume, acclaimed author of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and other award-winning children's books.If you think there are no new stories to write, remember "it's not how the wind blows that determines your direction - but how you set your sails." Jennifer Stewart Write101.com. "Responsibility isn't a coat. You can't take it off and stuff it in the closet when it feels uncomfortable. This is why writers must write with passion and compassion."--Vicki Hinze "Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child." -Ron Wild "Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it." - William Faulkner"Don't dare to be different, dare to be yourself - if that doesn't make you different then something is wrong." - Laura Baker "When you are waiting for the someone, minutes seem like hours, if you are talking to a beautiful woman, hours seem just minutes. That is relativity for you." - Albert Einstein"You will never find time for anything. You must make it." - Charles Buxton"What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence." - Samuel Johnson"There is absolutely nothing I can tell anybody; except that writers come from all sorts of backgrounds and talke all sorts of paths. It's a total mystery how it happens." --Paul Auster"Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." - James R. Cook. This quote courtesy of Curious Quotes. To subscribe, CuriousQuotes@onelist.com .No one can make you inferior without your consent. -- Eleanor Roosevelt"The two most beautiful words in the English language are: 'Check enclosed.'" -- Dorothy Parker. From http://www.inscriptionsmagazine.comIt is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. - Agnes Repplier"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." --Tom Stoppard (This quote was submitted to The Written Word by Constance Daley -- www.darientel.net/~infinity)Never be afraid to try something new. Remember amateurs built the Ark - professionals built the Titanic."Ask yourself in the quietest hour of the night: must I write? Dig down into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be in the affirmative, if you may meet this solemn question with a strong and simple, I must, then build your life according to this necessity." -- Rainer Maria Rilke From: maidenfate@aol.com"Indeed, the great paradox of the writer's life is how much time he spends alone trying to connect with other people." --Betsy Lerner "I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten -- happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another." --Brenda UelandDo good and don't worry to whom. -- Mexican Proverb. From Proverbs Plus.The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity. - Francis Maitland BalfourFaith When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
or, you will be taught how to fly
|
© Patrick Overton
|
"Don't get discouraged because there's a lot of mechanical work to writing...I rewrote the first part of Farewell to Arms at least 50 times." -- Ernest Hemingway "I have to go to the reservation, to the spot I'll be writing about to get comfortable with it. If something's going to happen in the late evening, I want to be there at twilight and listen to what's going on. Are the coyotes out there? Even if I never use a lot of this stuff, I like to feel at home in my mind with the spot I have on the page." --Tony HillermanPlease click on the buttons below to fight hunger, disease, and deforestation: For FREE with no obligations.
"Go on writing plays, my boy. One of these days one of those London producers will go into his office and say to his secretary, 'Is there a play from Shaw this morning?' and when she says 'No,' he will say, 'Well then, we have to start on the rubbish,' and that's your chance, my boy." -- George Bernard Shaw"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." -Mark Twain "A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author." -- Groucho Marx"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald Osborn"To write books is easy. It requires only pen and ink and the ever-patient paper. To print books is a little more difficult, because genius so often rejoices in illegible handwriting. To read books is more difficult still, because of the tendency to go to sleep. But the most difficult task of all that a mortal man can embark on is to sell a book." --Felix Dahn, paraphrased by Sir Stanley Unwin. This quote was submitted to The Written Word by Constance Daley -- www.darientel.net/~infinity"Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand." -- George Orwell"It is necessary for us to learn from others' mistakes. You will not live long enough to make them all yourself." - Hyman Rickover, U.S. Navy Admiral"(With writing), compulsive diligence is almost enough. But not quite. You have to have a taste for words. Gluttony. You have to want to roll in them." -- John D MacDonald"I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live." - Francoise Sagan
"The more a man writes, the more he can write." - William Hazlitt"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgement . . .Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or portion is more readily seen." - Leonardo da Vinci"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." -- Brendan Francis Behan "Writing is communication, not self-expression; nobody in this world wants to read your diary except your mother." -- Richard Peck"Poetry ennobles the heart and the eyes, and unveils the meaning of all things upon which the heart and the eyes dwell. It discovers the secret rays of the universe, and restores to us forgotten paradises." -- Edith Sitwell "Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand -- a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods -- or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values." -- Willa Cather"Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo." -- Don Marquis"A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles." - Washington Irving"We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I do not know." - W. H. Auden
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." Henry David Thoreau. From Constance Daley -- www.darientel.net/~infinity"PLANNING TO WRITE IS NOT WRITING. OUTLINING, RESEARCHING, TALKING TO PEOPLE ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING ... NONE OF THAT IS WRITING. WRITING IS WRITING." E. L. DOCTOROW. Also from Constance Daley -- www.darientel.net/~infinity"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet." -- Franz Kafka (This quote was submitted by Cathleen Hjalmarson -- cathleenh@CONED.UWINNIPEG.CA)"Because a fellow has failed once or twice, or a dozen times, you don't want to set him down as a failure till he's dead or loses his courage; and that's the same thing." George Lorimer. From http://www.onelist.com/community/CuriousQuotes "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." - Les Brown "I don't want anyone reading my writing to think about style. I just want| them to be in the story. -- Willa Cather- xanaduscriveners@att.net)"Let the readers do some of the work themselves." -- Fyodor DostoyevskyI am patient with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it. - Edith SitwellPlease click on the buttons below to fight hunger, disease, and deforestation for FREE with no obligations.
