“If you can't write a decent short story because of the cold, write something else. Write anything.”

—  William Saroyan

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), A Cold Day
Context: If you can't write a decent short story because of the cold, write something else. Write anything. Write a long letter to somebody.

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

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If you can't write a decent short story because of the cold, write something else. Write anything." by William Saroyan?
William Saroyan photo
William Saroyan190
American writer 1908–1981

Related quotes

Meg Cabot photo

“Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

“Everybody can write; writers can't do anything else.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Frédéric Chopin photo

“You already know when I'm writing, so don't be surprised if it's short and dry, because I'm too hungry to write anything fat”

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer

As quoted in his letter to Jan Bialoblocki, written in Zelazowa Wola and dated back to December 24th 1826[citation needed]

O. Henry photo

“I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.”

O. Henry (1862–1910) American short story writer

Joanne Harris photo

“You don't write because someone sets assignments! You write because you need to write, or because you hope someone will listen or because writing will mend something broken inside you or bring something back to life.”

Joanne Harris book Blackberry Wine

Source: Blackberry Wine

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Crack-Up

Notebook E: Epigrams, Wisecracks, and Jokes https://books.google.com/books?id=NIhKY8SpAE4C&amp;q=%22You%20don%27t%20write%20because%20you%20want%20to%20say%20something%3B%20you%20write%20because%20you%27ve%20got%20something%20to%20say.%22&amp;pg=PA123#v=onepage, edited by Edmund Wilson (1945) <br class="br">Quoted, The Crack-Up (1936)

Jamaica Kincaid photo

“The thing about writing in America—and I just recently understood this—is that writers in America have an arc. You enter writing as a career, you expect to be successful, and really it’s the wrong thing. It’s not a profession. A professional writer is a joke. You write because you can’t do anything else, and then you have another job. I’m always telling my students go to law school or become a doctor, do something, and then write. First of all you should have something to write about, and you only have something to write about if you do something. If you just sit there, and you’re a writer, you’re bound to write crap. A lot of American writing is crap. And a lot of American writers are professionals. Writing is not a profession. It’s a calling. It’s almost holy…”

Jamaica Kincaid (1949) Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer

On her views of writing in “Jamaica Kincaid: Does Truth Have a Tone?” https://www.guernicamag.com/does-truth-have-a-tone/ in Guernica (2013 Jun 17)

Margaret Atwood photo

“Tell, rather than write, because I have nothing to write with and writing is in any case forbidden. But if it’s a story, even in my head, I must be telling it to someone. You don’t tell a story only to yourself. There’s always someone else.
Even when there is no one.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 7 (pp. 39-40)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Henry Miller photo

“I soon learned that one must give up everything and not do anything else but write, that one must write write write.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Henry Miller on Writing (1964)

Related topics