“Promises were like bad checks, easy to write and hard to cash.”

—  Robert Charles Wilson , book Blind Lake

Source: Blind Lake (2003), Chapter 15 (p. 179)

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 "Promises were like bad checks, easy to write and hard to cash." by Robert Charles Wilson?
Robert Charles Wilson photo
Robert Charles Wilson 134
author 1953

Related quotes

Anton Chekhov photo

“Everyone judges plays as if they were very easy to write. They don’t know that it is hard to write a good play, and twice as hard and tortuous to write a bad one.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to A.S. Suvorin (May 4, 1889)
Letters

Steve Jobs photo

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

On why he delayed the Leopard OS in favor of developing the iPhone rather than hiring more developers, at the annual Apple stockholder's meeting (10 May 2007) as quoted in "Apple's Jobs brushes aside backdating concerns" at c|net News (10 May 2007) http://archive.is/20130628220833/http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6182965.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
Variant: I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check … if so, then Microsoft would have great products.
As quoted in "Apple iPhone: more secrets revealed" (11 May 2007) http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/mac/news/apple-iphone-jobs-spills-more-secrets?articleid=1431998781
2005-09
Context: I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If that was the case, Microsoft would have great products.

Clarice Lispector photo

“No it is not easy to write. It is as hard as breaking rocks. Sparks and splinters fly like shattered steel.”

Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star

Source: The Hour of the Star

Nathaniel Hawthorne photo

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)

Also attributed to Ernest Hemingway and others; the earliest definite occurrence of this yet found in research for Wikiquote is by Maya Angelou, who stated it in Conversations With Maya Angelou (1989) edited by Jeffrey M. Elliot:
I think it's Alexander Pope who says, "Easy writing is damn hard reading," and vice versa, easy reading is damn hard writing
The statement she referred to is most probably:
You write with ease, to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading
Clio's Protest, or the Picture Varnished (written 1771, published 1819) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Disputed

Nicholas Sparks photo

“Writing is easy. It's just the typing that's hard.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Miles Sparks, Prologue, p. 3
2000s, Three Weeks with My Brother (2004)

Ernest Hemingway photo

“Easy writing makes hard reading.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

As quoted in Paris Was Our Mistress (1947) by Samuel Putnam, p. 128

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“For while the process of developing cash flow from an asset column in theory is easy, it is the mental fortitude of directing money that is hard.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo

“You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading.”

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-British politician, playwright and writer

Clio's Protest (1819).

Steve Jobs photo

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If that was the case, Microsoft would have great products.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

On why he delayed the Leopard OS in favor of developing the iPhone rather than hiring more developers, at the annual Apple stockholder's meeting (10 May 2007) as quoted in "Apple's Jobs brushes aside backdating concerns" at c|net News (10 May 2007) http://archive.is/20130628220833/http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6182965.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
As quoted in "Apple iPhone: more secrets revealed" (11 May 2007) http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/mac/news/apple-iphone-jobs-spills-more-secrets?articleid=1431998781
2000s
Variant: I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check … if so, then Microsoft would have great products.

Related topics