Words about Writing
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These quotes have been gleaned from various books, the NCTE lists, and other sources. The categorical links lead to other quotes about education and Language Arts. There is no order to them, just scroll down and enjoy. Again, I have tried to link the quotes with appropriate web sites for each.
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| Teaching | Writing | Reading |
| Thinking | Learning | Words |
PreWriting
"Writers seldom write the things they think. They simply write the things they think other folks think they think." "To write is to write is to write is write is to write is to write is to write is to write."
"A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."
"Writing is all a matter of choice and arrangement."
"The discipline of the writer is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to tell him."
"Writing is easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
"The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly."
"How do I know what I'll think until I see what I say."
"When you're writing, you're trying to find out something which you don't know." "I type in one place, but I write all over the house."
"Just get it down on paper, and then we'll see what to do with it."
"Writing is the hardest work in the world not involving heavy lifting."
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The 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not start thine essay, "My paper is about...," or any variation thereof. Tim Mooney
"The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what is saw in a plain way."
"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork."
"You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal."
"Once a person begins writing in the truthtelling groove, she seldom uses trite phrases and clichés. Fresh expressions come to her."
"A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make any sense."
"Doing an experiment is not more important than writing."
"Listen up, because I've got nothing to say and I'm only going to say it once." "Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the secret of style."
"Writing comes more easily if you have something to say."
"Small words are the best, and the old small words are best of all."
"It isn't that jargon is noxious in itself, it's that, like crabgrass, the dratted stuff keeps rooting where it doesn't belong."
"A cliché is an expression so overworked that is has become an automatic way of getting around the main business of writing, which is to suit each word to the meaning at hand. The habitual user of cliché brands himself as a lazy writer." "All words are pegs to hang ideas on."
"The man is most original who can adapt from the greatest number of sources."
"I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for?"
"My books are like water: Those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water."
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Revision"You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences." "Revise, revise, revise."
"(You must) convince yourself that you are working in clay and not marble, on paper and not eternal bronze; let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. No one will rush out and print it as it stands. Just put it down; then another."
"Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words."
"It is impossible to write one's best if nobody else ever has a look at it."
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Memoir & Autobiography
"Autobiographies ought to begin with Chapter Two."
"A memoir is not what happens, but the person to whom things happen."
"Stories...create our first memories, from the stories we hear as children, we inherit the ways we talk about how we feel, the values which we hold to be important, and what we regard as truth."
"Memoir is a window into life."
"In writing memoir we select moments that reveal our own experiences of our lives."
"Memoir is how writers look for the past and make sense of it."
"Memoir recognizes and explores moments on the way to growing up and becoming ones, the good moments and the bad ones."
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Words "One great use of words is to hide our thoughts." "It is with words as with sunbeams--the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn." "Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men." "Words are tools which automatically carve concepts out of experience." "Thus they went on living in a reality that was slipping away, momentarily captured by words, but which would escape irremediably when they forgot the values of written letters." Gabriel García Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude "Words can be like x-rays if you use them properly--they'll go through anything." Aldous Huxley, Brave New World |