The Writer Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom

great gift for writers

"The future of the Information Age belongs to the information curators, not the providers" .... I remember this quote from a conference speaker in the 1990s when I worked for the Information Industry Association. But I forget who said it, which is kind of ironic as he was one of those curators.But I thought of it when I read this little book compiled by Kevin Lippert. It's just a bunch of quotes by writers; any one of us could have created it simply by googling "quotes by writers" and then sitting in front of our screens and selecting/curating our favorite quotes on writing into one long list.BUT, he's done a very nice job and I found myself both inspired as a writer and then self-selecting my fav quotes from his to help me with (and maybe even include in) my own writings...The book could have benefited from subheads so I'll add a few:ON STARTINGJudy Blume (1938-) "The first draft is torture! It's so hard for me. Once I've written the first draft, I have the pieces to the puzzle and I love to put it together and make it into a whole."John McPhee (1931-) "A piece of writing has to start somewhere, go somewhere, and sit down when it gets there. You do that by building what you hope is an unarguable structure: Beginning, middle, end. "Amy Tan (1952-) "Confusion is the best place to start a story"ON WRITER'S LIFEEllen Gilchrist (1935-) "The first thing a writer has to do is find another source of income..."Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) "The real trouble with the writing game is that no general rule can be worked out for uniform guidance."T.S. Elliott "I found that 3 hours a day is about all I can do of actual composing. I could do polishing perhaps later ... It's much better to stop and think about something else altogether different."Salman Rushdie (1947-) "There's a point at which you're not making it better, you're just making it different. You have to be good at at recognizing that point."ON CREATING STORY NARRATIVESGeorge Saunders (1958-) "The story doesn't want to be told what to do. You have to enter into this process with a high level of trust that the many hours of choosing what you're doing everyday will gradually clarify the narrative for you."Joan Didion (1934-) "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means, what I want and what I fear...what is going on in these pictures in my mind?"Peter Straub (1943-) "The best way for me to solve problems in my own life is to write about them."Lorrie Moore (1957-) "It's difficult to set up your life up to accommodate an alternative universe, which is why writing one can take a long time."ON RESEARCHIan Fleming (1908-64) "I don't think I've ever written about a part of the world which I myself haven't visited, I was a reporter for a long time. I have a reporter's eye and sense of locality, and I add to this by taking notes and buying road maps where I happen to be."William Boyd (1952-) "We've all read novels when you plow through 3 pages on the manufacture of rubber and you realize that the writer has been to Singapore to see a rubber plantation and, by God, are we going to hear about it."*ON CREATING UNIVERSALITYJhumpa Lahiri (1967-)"Surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person , a situation , in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us as profoundly as real people and things do."Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) "The good writer seems to be writing about himself (but never is) but has his eye always on that thread of the universe which runs through himself and all things."*I love especially the Boyd quote on the Rubber Plantation description ... it reminds me of a quote by my mom on the work of Arthur Hailey (Airport, Money Changers, Wheels, Hotel, etc)Mom: "You learn so much from his books about things you didn't even know you were interested in!"Me: It's all in the way the words are arranged in the sentences that turns information into art :)And since it is HIGHLY unlikely I will ever got to a rubber plantation in Singapore, I am grateful to authors who, by God, take me with them on such adventures, even if that particular adventure is not my favorite part of the book.This little compendium of quotes would make a nice gift to an aspiring writer, especially at graduation or a milestone birthday ending in zero or retirement when he/she finally has time (or can make time) " to write that one book everyone has inside them"But, as the book quotes E.B. White (1899-1985), that will not be easy: "In the end a man must sit down and get the words on paper; and against great odds. This takes stamina and resolution."To that end, this book of quotes is a nice bit of inspiration for both aspiring and actual writers.