“The final lesson a writer learns is that everything can nourish the writer.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
As quoted in French Writers of the Past (2000) by Carol A. Dingle, p. 126
Context: The final lesson a writer learns is that everything can nourish the writer. The dictionary, a new word, a voyage, an encounter, a talk on the street, a book, a phrase learned.
P. L. Travers (1899–1996) Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist
As quoted in The New York Times (2 July 1978)
Ben Hecht (1894–1964) American screenwriter
from "Elegy for Wonderland", by Ben Hecht, Esquire Magazine, March 1959
Ta-Nehisi Coates (1975) writer, journalist, and educator
Source: The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (2008), p. 72.
William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), A Cold Day
“You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.”
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Interview with Herbert Mitgang, "Mrs. Lessing Addresses Some of Life's Puzzles," The New York Times (22 April 1984)
Context: You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing. I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
