Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader — not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
E.L. Doctorow
quotes for writers
Put down that book
Every time people force themselves to carry on with a book they’re not enjoying, they reinforce the idea that reading is a duty.
Nick Hornby (via droppingtheball)
Reading vs. Writing
Sometimes I think a writer should make up his mind whether he’s going to be a writer or a reader. There isn’t time for both.
— Jessamyn West (via The Paris Review).
That is exactly how I feel: can’t read when I’m writing, can’t write when I’m reading.
Margaret Atwood: Books are frozen voices
Books are frozen voices, in the same way that musical scores are frozen music. The score is a way of transmitting the music to someone who can play it, releasing it into the air where it can once more be heard. And the black alphabet marks on the page represent words that were once spoken, if only in the writer’s head. They lie there inert until a reader comes along and transforms the letters into living sounds. The reader is the musician of the book: each reader may read the same text, just as each violinist plays the same piece, but each interpretation is different.
David Mitchell: Plot and character
I prefer to discuss the human heart through characterization, and to address the human condition through plot.
David Mitchell (via theparisreview)
Kundera: Lightness of form
My lifetime ambition has been to unite the utmost seriousness of question with the utmost lightness of form.
Milan Kundera (via theparisreview)
What to Write
“Write about the thing that frightens you most.”
Laziness will not do
So avoid using the word very because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys: to woo women. And in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.
Dead Poet’s Society