WRITING
WRITING -1
“All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.” - Apostle Paul - 2 Tim. 3:16,17 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give up because by that time I was too famous. – Robert Benchley
There are no faster or firmer friendships than those between people who love the same books. – Irving Stone
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts—the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. – John Ruskin
The difference between reality and fiction—fiction has to make sense. – Tom Clancy
“Before I can live with other folks, I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” – Atticus Finch to Scout – Harper Lee – TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
What the wife of a writer cannot understand is that a writer is working even when he’s staring out a window. – Burton Rascoe (American journalist / critic)
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wished we didn’t. – Erica Jong
Adoring receptionist praising Melvin for his writing: “How do you write women so well?” Melvin Udall, (Jack Nicholson) clearly perturbed: “I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.” – AS GOOD AS IT GETS – Mark Andrus / James L. Brooks (Screenplay) – 1997
Whenever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings. – Heinrich Heine (German poet, - 1800’s)
The function of art is to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and as if by magic, we see new meaning in it. – Anais Nin (American diarist / writer)
Easy DOESN’T do it. – Al Bernstein (American sportscaster / writer / actor)
Victor Hugo matured in his grief. One of his daughters went insane. Adele, his wife, died. In 1871 one of his sons died. In 1873 the other died. He carried these tragedies as a personal portfolio of grief and guilt. At 80 years, Hugo was a sage—and the poet of the common man. He stayed in political exile on the island of Guernsey for nineteen years. His only companion was the sea. – Gary Pulliam
WRITING - 2
“For all things that were written beforehand were written for our instruction, so that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures, we might have hope.” – Apostle Paul – Rom. 15:4 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
Poetry is the impish attempt to paint the color of the wind. – Ben Hecht (American screenwriter)
The central dilemma of journalism is that you don’t know what you don’t know. - Bob Woodward
Books may be the only true magic. – Alice Huffman (American novelist)
“Is anybody at Time Warner embarrassed by these by these lyrics? Will the executives at Time Warner stand up and say these things in public? We’re not talking about censorship—we’re talking about citizenship.” – (Referring to Ice T’s rap record COP KILLER.) – William Bennett (Former U.S. Secretary of Education.) – 1995
There is no thief like a bad movie. – Sam Ewing (Baseball player)
Talent is the gift plus the passion—a desire to succeed so intense that no force on earth can stop it. – Neil Simon
If you read a lot of books, you’re considered well-read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you’re not considered well-viewed. – Lily Tomlin
Life is like a novel with the end ripped out. – Rascal Flats – STAND
“We artists love praise, but we love truth even better.” – Robert Shaw (Henry VIII) to Paul Schofield (Sir Thomas Moore). - A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS - Robert Bolt (Screenplay)
I wrote a few children’s books, but not on purpose. – Steven Wright
In every culture with a written history, hope for the future was spurred on by the preservation of family, the search for God, and unfortunately, the desire for more land. – Gary Pulliam
If thought corrupts language, language also corrupts thoughts. – George Orwell
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read. – Oscar Wilde
“Once I knew a nosey gnu that had a nose for news, a nose like no newsman ever knew, but now he’s dead and though I know another nosey gnu, I’ll never know a gnu that knew the news that that gnu knew.” – Wiley in the B.C. comic strip. – Johnny Hart
Drama is life with all the dull parts cut out. – Alfred Hitchcock
Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. – P. J. O’Rourke (American journalist / writer)
WRITING - 3
“The Bible is the most widely read book in history. It is probably the most influential. More copies of the Bible have been distributed than any other book. It has also been translated more times into more languages than any other book.” – THE WORLD BOOK ENCLYCLOPEDIA
Drama is the study of someone who loses his life, and then gets it back again. – Steven Spielberg
“And then she opened a book of poems / and handed it to me / written by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century. / And every one of those words rang true / and glowed like a burning coal / pouring off of every page / like it was written in my soul / from me to you…tangled up in blue.” – TANGLED UP IN BLUE – 1973 – Bob Dylan
Real love stories never have endings. – Richard Bach (American writer)
While we have the gift of life, it seems that the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die—whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness. – Gilda Radner
“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question now what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” – George Orwell – Conclusion of ANIMAL FARM
I know it all, I just can’t remember it all at once. – Me, most of the time.
This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force. – Dorothy Parker (American poet / writer)
Most rock journalism is by people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read. – Frank Zappa
Do what you love and you will find a way to get it out to the world. – Judy Collins
“I simply want to tell you there are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father is one of them.” – Miss Maudie (neighbor) to Jem Finch (Phillip Alford). – TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – Horton Foote (Screenplay)
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. – German proverb
Jounalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It’s absolutely unavoidable. – Marguerite Duras (French novelist)
Nothing in fine print is ever good news. – Andy Rooney
I love Victor Hugo because he seemed to be the social conscience of the downtrodden. He was not afraid to condemn society, politics and religion. He elevated the sanctity of life, and his works became a platform for political and social reform. – Gary Pulliam on Victor Hugo
WRITING - 4
“Your word is truth.” – Jesus Christ – John 17:17 – Apostle John – HOLY SCRIPTURES
This land is your land, and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by people who never listen to music anyway. – Bob Dylan
My ideas usually come not out of any desk writing but in the midst of living. – Anais Nin
Imagination is the highest kite one can fly. – Lauren Becall (American actress)
“It’s a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. It’s a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.” – Conclusion: Charles Darney facing execution by guillotine. — A TALE OF TWO CITIES – Charles Dickens
Life is a moderately written good play with a badly written third act. – Truman Capote (American writer)
If you steal an idea, you’re a thief—if you steel many, it’s research. – Anonymous? (Perhaps it originated with suspicion against writers plagiarizing the work of others.)
The secret of humor is surprise. – Aristotle
Every great work of art has two faces—one in its own time and one in the future, toward eternity. – Daniel Barenboim – PARALLELS & PARADOXES: EXPLANATIONS OF MUSIC IN SOCIETY
Doing nothing is very hard to do…how do you know when you’re finished? – Leslie Nielsen
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorant in the community. – Oscar Wilde
If you enjoy what you do, you will never work a day in your life. – Aristotle
One of the greater mischiefs that confront us today is the growing Debasement of the LANGUAGE, on the one hand vulgarized, with civilization on the other, corrupted, with a particular odious academic jargon. This is dangerous. A civilization which loses power over its own language has lost its power over the instrument by which it thinks. Without some power there is neither greatness nor accuracy of thought. – Henry Boston (American athlete)
Journalism is sculpture in the snow – So true
The first forty years of life give us the text—the next thirty give us the commentary on it. – Arthur Schopenhauer (German philosopher)
“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” – Oscar Wilde – THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY –1891
The greeting card industry is living proof that so many cannot say what they really want to say because of their lack of verbal communication skills. – Unknown
WRITING - 5
“These words that I am commanding you must be on your heart, and you must inculcate them in your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” – Moses – Deut. 6: 6,7 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels. – Jane Austen
“To remember is to understand. I have never forgotten it. A good judge remembers what it was like to be a good lawyer. A good editor remembers being a writer. A good parent remembers what it was like to be a child.” – Anna Quindlen – THINKING OUT LOUD
Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. – Ernest Hemingway
We have been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We are cleaning up the air, but polluted the soul. We have conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learn to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, but we communicate less and less. – George Carlin
The possession of knowledge does not kill the since of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery. – Anais Nin
People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is ability to articulate human relationships. – Gore Vidal (American writer)
“An angry person may have a reason to be enraged. His greatest problem, however, could be that he lacks the words to think and communicate clearly and effectively. One does not need to have a huge vocabulary to formulate and express ideas coherently although it helps. One certainly needs more than obscene expressions for copulation and incest.” – Cecil Johnson – Columnist of the FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM
First find out what your hero wants, then just follow him. – Ray Bradbury
The moment a man starts to talk about technique, that’s proof that he’s fresh out of ideas. – Raymond Chandler
Good writing is like a windowpane. – George Orwell
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, “I used everything you gave me.” – Erma Bombeck
Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use. – Mark Twain
Words are a lens to focus one’s mind. – Ayn Rand
WRITING - 6
“Sow your seed in the morning and do not let your hand rest until the evening; for you not know which will have success, whether this one or that one, or whether they will both do well.” – Solomon – Eccl. 11:6 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
Half of my life has been an act of revision. – John Irving
There is no friend loyal as a book. – Ernest Hemingway
“We don’t read and write because it’s cute. We read and write because we’re members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are things we stay alive for.” – John Keating (Robin Williams) introducing poetry to his new class. – DEAD POET’S SOCIETY – Tom Schulman (Screenplay) –1989
I went for years without finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged. – Erica Jong
The studios don’t seem to foster good writing. They’re not so interested in that, but they’re more interested in what worked recently. They’re definitely very serious about making money, and that’s not a wrong thing, but you don’t have to make money the same way all the time. – Bill Murray
A wounded deer leaps the highest. – Emily Dickenson
I can write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss—you can’t do it alone. – John Cheever
We read to know that we are not alone. – C. S. Lewis
The closest a person ever comes to perfection is when he fills out his job application form. – Stanley Randall (Businessman)
Children are made readers from the laps of their parents. – Emilie Buchwald (American writer / editor / publisher)
The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. – William Faulkner
I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading. – Charles Kuralt
A good writing is swimming underwater and holding your breath. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literature dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. – Anais Nin
WRITING — 7
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. - Ernest Hemingway
