“Writing can wreck your body. You sit there on the chair hour after hour and sweat your guts out to get a few words.”

— Norman Mailer

Interview for French TV (1998)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "Writing can wreck your body. You sit there on the chair hour after hour and sweat your guts out to get a few words." by Norman Mailer?

Norman Mailer 165

American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film m… 1923–2007

Christopher McDougall (1962) American journalist and writer

Source: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

“Man, you must sweat
And rhyme your guts taut, if you'd build
Your verse a ladder.”

R.S. Thomas (1913–2000) Welsh poet

"Poetry For Supper"
Poetry For Supper (1958)
Context: Natural, hell! What was it Chaucer
Said once about the long toil
that goes like blood to the poems making? Leave it to nature and the verse sprawls,
Limp as bindweed, if it break at all
Life's iron crust
Man, you must sweat
And rhyme your guts taut, if you'd build
Your verse a ladder.

“To sit and pass hour after hour in idle chatter with a roomful of strangers is to me the worst sort of torment.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Variant: I have a scholar's love of silence and solitude. To sit and pass hour after hour in idle chatter with a roomful of strangers is to me the worst sort of torment.
Source: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

“One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your hear that every day is the best day of the year.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“Writing is tiring and difficult, but I can sit at my desk for hours and hours, writing through the night to dawn. I never had any prior writing experience, but I learned that it’s not about using heavy vocabulary, and more about how I can express my sincerity.”

Brigitte Lin (1954) Taiwanese actress

As quoted in "Brigitte Lin, a timeless national treasure" in Taipei Times (15 May 2018) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2018/05/15/2003693091

“If you want a room to write in, just get a room. Don't make a big production out of it. If it doesn't leak, has a window, heat in the winter, then put in your desk, bookshelves, a soft chair, and start writing.”

Natalie Goldberg book Writing Down the Bones

Essay, "The writing studio". p.103
Writing Down the Bones (1986)

“I have neither time to live nor to write. I am therefore cheating my art by stealing a few evening hours to write this most inadequate and negligent reply to the courteous and elegant letters of yours.”

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) Flemish painter

In a letter to his friend Peiresc, Dec. 1634 - LPPR, 393; as quoted by Simon Schrama, in Rembrandt's eyes, Alfred A. Knopf - Borzoi Books, New York 1999, p. 403
At a speed which was daunting even for someone of his facility, Rubens was asked to supply the designs for four stages and five triumphal arches in the city Antwerp. Though he could rely on his scholarly friends for help with the allegorical program and his workshop for assistance in fabricating them, he still became 'overburdened' with the work
1625 - 1640

“You would have to sit at the board and sweat and feel the fear of defeat or the nearness of victory to understand what goes through a player's head … If you think it's that easy, switch off the computer and try and figure out a few moves on your own.”

Viswanathan Anand (1969) Indian chess player

Game of thrones with world chess champion Viswanathan Anand

“Do you know what the good side of crack is? If you're up at the right hour, you can get a VCR for $1.50. You can furnish your whole house for $10.95.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Bring the Pain (HBO, 1996)

“I would say eat 8000 calories a day, train for 2.5 hours a day and also do an hour of cardio so you are taking in a lot more calories and your body is just going to grow.”

Rich Piana (1970–2017) American bodybuilder and internet personality

“Writing can wreck your body. You sit there on the chair hour after hour and sweat your guts out to get a few words.”

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Norman Mailer 165

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