Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A few writers on writing

The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who write know anything.
Walter Bagshot 1826-1877

A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent of Writing, but wants fifty Guineas.
Jean de Bruyère 1646-1696

(Sounds to me as if they’d both have agreed with the theory of the 99%! And fifty guineas for a first book, in those days? Wow!)

Literary success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by refusing to write what the public wants, by refusing to accept any popular standard, by refusing to write anything to order.
Lafcadio Hearn 1850-1904

There is only one trait that marks the writer. He is always watching. It’s a kind of trick of the mind and he is born with it. (And I’m sure he meant to include ‘she’)
Morley Callaghan 1903-1990

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
A.A.Milne 1882-1956

Writing is one of the few professions left where you take all the responsibility for what you do. It’s really dangerous and ultimately destroys you as a writer if you start thinking about responses to your work or what your audience needs.
Erica Jong

This is what I find most encouraging about the writing trades: They allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence. They also allow lunatics to seem saner than sane.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that’s read by persons who move their lips when they’re reading to themselves.
Don Marquis

(The trouble with that theory is most of those people now watch reality TV or play video games)

Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.
Gene Fowler 1890-1960
(Maybe he should have tried something else)

And maybe the dreamers and wannabees should take note from Sean O’Casey (1880-1964) when he said that when he stepped from hard manual work to writing, he just stepped from one kind of hard work to another. Let’s face it, writing for money is a job.

Of course Benjamin Disraeli probably blabbed our innermost secret when he wrote, “When I want to read a good book, I write one.”

One last thought, from Papa Hemingway – The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shock-proof shit-detector.