“All you can write is what you see.”
Comment written on his first manuscript notes for "God Blessed America" (23 February 1940); quoted in Woody Guthrie: A Life (1981) by Joe Klein, p. 136
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Woody Guthrie33
American singer-songwriter and folk musician 1912–1967Related quotes
“All writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive so you can see what happened.”
Ernest J. Gaines (1933–2019) Novelist, short story writer, teacher
In an interview with Religion & Ethics Newsweekly http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2011/02/18/february-18-2011-ernest-gaines/8169/, February 18, 2011
“Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer
"Thomas Love Peacock: The Novel of Ideas" (1980)
1980s, The Second American Revolution (1983)
Variant: In any case, write what you know will always be excellent advice to those who ought not to write at all.
Source: The Essential Gore Vidal
Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
Speaking to the press following a "postively productive" meeting http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=50688 with Bill Clinton (24 October 1995) <br class="br">Alternative translation: those anticipating a failure of the meeting "have failed" ("вы провалились"). <br class="br">1990s
“I've had a very sheltered life. What can happen to you if you stay home writing all day?”
R.L. Stine (1943) American writer and producer
“I don't see how you can write anything of value if you don't offend someone.”
Marvin Harris (1927–2001) American anthropologist
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Thursday