Favorite quote from an author

Tornadoboy · Jan 12, 2007

I just thought I'd throw this topic out there, which is what is your favorite personal quote from an author?

I'll paraphrase one from Stephen King

"Some people say I have the heart of a small child, and that's true, I keep it in a jar on my desk"

Ah SK... gotta love him! :ROFL:

Shadow_Ferret · Jan 12, 2007

Do you mean something the author has said in public or something he's written in his fiction?

Gillhoughly · Jan 12, 2007

Same as what's in my profile:

"Before you go ruining your life, it goes without saying you first have to have one." - Kinky Friedman

Tornadoboy · Jan 12, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
Do you mean something the author has said in public or something he's written in his fiction?

Quotes that they themselves have said publicly.

Here's one from Mark Twain, again I'm paraphrasing:

"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress, but I repeat myself"

Saundra Julian · Jan 12, 2007

"All first drafts are sh!t." Ernest Hemingway

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Jan 12, 2007

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

-- Gene Fowler (1890-1960)

Jongfan · Jan 12, 2007

"Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing."

Henry Miller

CaroGirl · Jan 12, 2007

I favour the following quote by Truman Capote:

--To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

Tornadoboy · Jan 12, 2007

Saundra Julian said:
"All first drafts are sh!t." Ernest Hemingway

Ohhh how could I have forgotten about that one? I've got it printed across the top of my writing computer's monitor!

maestrowork · Jan 12, 2007

Success as a novelist is based on three requirements: talent, luck, and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.

-- Michael Chabon

NeuroFizz · Jan 12, 2007

There is no perfect time to write. There's only now. (Barbara Kingsolver)

This one doesn't count (for obvious reasons): If writing is becoming a pain in the a$$, make sure you can locate your pencil. (NeuroFizz)

Alex Bravo · Jan 12, 2007

Paraphrasing someone, don't remember who, but I always liked:

The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.

Lyra Jean · Jan 12, 2007

Although I have never read Moby Dick. I do have a bookmark with a Herman Melville quote:

"Life is but a journey that is homeward bound.

Tornadoboy · Jan 12, 2007

Here's another one that I think comes from Twain, although I can't be sure if it does or if I've even got it correct:

"I get all the exercise I need by walking to the funerals of my health conscious friends"

I'd also love it if someone could tell me where "I wish I was where I am" originated from? That's of course assuming I've even got the saying right, but in either case it suits me!

maestrowork · Jan 12, 2007

Two wongs don't make me write.

-- Maestrowork, a.k.a. Raymond K. Wong

Efrddyl · Jan 12, 2007

There is no mistaking the dismay on the face of a writer who has just heard that his brain child is a deformed idiot.
- L. Sprague de Camp

Jongfan · Jan 12, 2007

Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled.

Dean Koontz

Shadow_Ferret · Jan 12, 2007

I work until beer o'clock -- Stephen King

MidnightMuse · Jan 12, 2007

I don't know where this one came from, but I love it:

"The trouble with doing nothing is you never know when you're done."

PeeDee · Jan 12, 2007

"Don't write crap," Harlan Ellison.

Sassenach · Jan 12, 2007

"Write a little every day, without hope and without despair."

--Isak Dinesen

PeeDee · Jan 12, 2007

Can I do another one?

"I love deadlines. I love the wooshing sound they make as they go by."

-- Douglas Adams.

jules · Jan 12, 2007

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
-- Douglas Adams

Edit: Erm. Crosspost. OK.

PeeDee · Jan 12, 2007

Whoa! Creepy!

TheIT · Jan 12, 2007

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." -- Jack London

Favorite quote from an author

I bite

Court Jester

Grumpy writer and editor

I bite

A work in progress

Hand? What hand?

Insane, in a good way

Living the dream

I bite

Fear the Death Ray

The grad students did it

Two years old now.

I bite

Fear the Death Ray

Efrddyl

Insane, in a good way

Court Jester

Midnight Reading

Where's my tea, please...?

5 W's & an H

Where's my tea, please...?

Bored fanatic

Where's my tea, please...?

Infuriatingly Theoretical