Stephen King (1947) American author
Variant: When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Stephen King (1947) American author
Variant: When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass
Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 32 : Morning
Context: One of the ghosts — an old woman — beckoned, urging her to come close.
Then she spoke, and Mary heard her say:
"Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories."
That was all, and then she was gone. It was one of those moments when we suddenly recall a dream that we’ve unaccountably forgotten, and back in a flood comes all the emotion we felt in our sleep. It was the dream she’d tried to describe to Atal, the night picture; but as Mary tried to find it again, it dissolved and drifted apart, just as these presences did in the open air. The dream was gone.
All that was left was the sweetness of that feeling, and the injunction to tell them stories.
“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.”
Jane Smiley (1949) American novelist
movie The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Jordan Belfort played by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
“Even the silence
has a story to tell you.
Just listen. Listen.”
Jacqueline Woodson book Brown Girl Dreaming
Source: Brown Girl Dreaming
Esperanza Spalding (1984) American jazz bassist and singer
On becoming a writer in “Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj” https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7973640/esperanza-spalding-77-hours-livestream-album-interview in Billboard (2017 Sep 22)
Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 7 (pp. 39-40)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
Interview, The Paris Review (Summer 1956)