Love This Quote

“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”

~Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Some of My Favorite Quotes About Writing

"I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head." ~John Updike

"It should be noted that there are two blissful things about writing novels: making them up and seeing them finished." ~ Ann Patchett

found here

“Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.” Virginia Woolf

"There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they never happened." ~ Willa Cather

"It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive." ~ James Baldwin 

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the 1st time unlike, say, brain surgery.” R. Cormier

found here

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it." ~Hannah Arendt

"If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." ~Toni Morrison

"Writing books is the closest men will ever come to child bearing." - Norman Maile

"If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad." ~Lord Byron

You and me both, Lord Byron. You and me both.

What's your favorite quote about writing?

Great Quotes

Another quote from Bird by Bird:

"The core, ethical concepts in which you most passionately believe are the language in which you are writing ... you can't tell them in a sentence or a paragraph; the truth doesn't come out in bumper stickers. there may be a flickering moment of insight in a one-liner, in a sound bite, but everyday meat-and-potatoes truth is beyond our ability to capture in a few words. Your whole piece is the truth, not just one shining epigrammatic moment in it. We're dealing with the ineffable here--we're out there somewhere between the known and the unknown, trying to reel in both for a closer look. This is why it may take a whole book."

--Anne Lamott

I Love Anne Lamott

I'm currently reading Bird by Bird as part of my "continuing education" as  a writer. If you haven't read it, you should. Anne Lamott is brilliant.

I particularly liked this quote, which I read today:

"The problem that comes up over and over again is that these people want to be published. They kind of want to write, but they really want to be published. You'll never get to where you want to be that way, I tell them."

~ Anne Lamott



In other news, I will be releasing another book very soon! It doesn't have a title yet (grrr) but I'm working on that. More news coming soon ...