“If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!”
Jackie Collins (1937–2015) British-American novelist and writer
Preface to Lear (1972; London: Methuen, 1983) p. lvii
“If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!”
Jackie Collins (1937–2015) British-American novelist and writer
Édouard Louis (1992) French writer
On how he wants to be perceived as a writer in “Édouard Louis: 'I want to be a writer of violence. The more you talk about it, the more you can undo it'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/09/edouard-louis-i-want-to-be-a-writer-of-violence-the-more-you-talk-about-it-the-more-you-can-undo-it in The Guardian (2018 Jun 9)
“Our age has need of violence," he writes. And he is violence.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin
Cesar Chavez (1927–1993) American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist
Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1990)
Jack Donovan (1974) American activist, editor and writer
Violence is golden
A Sky Without Eagles (2014)
Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) English-American novelist and essayist
"Come on, Big Boy — Let Me See Your Manuscript," review and interview by Herbert Gold, The New York Times (1987-08-02)
Meena Kandasamy (1984) Indian poet
On the threat of violence in “Meena Kandasamy interview: ‘I don’t know if I’m idiotic – or courageous’” https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/meena-kandasamy-interview-i-don-t-know-if-i-m-idiotic-or-courageous-9238644.html in the Independent (2014 Apr 6)
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture — it's a really stupid thing to want to do.”
Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter
This has commonly been paraphrased "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." More info at "Alan P. Scott : Talking about music..." http://home.pacifier.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm Also, Costello has denied http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/ having coined this, in an interview in Q magazine, tentatively attributing the quote instead to Martin Mull. <br class="br">Misattributed
E. B. White (1899–1985) American writer
Letter to Shirley Wiley (30 March 1954), in The Letters of E. B. White (1989), p. 391