“Everybody can write; writers can't do anything else.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Mignon McLaughlin278
American journalist 1913–1983Related quotes
“If you can't write a decent short story because of the cold, write something else. Write anything.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
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.
“A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.”
William Zinsser (1922–2015) writer, editor, journalist, literary critic, professor
Source: On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976), Chapter 4, Style, p. 21.
“Happy endings are all I can do. I wouldn't know how to write anything else.”
Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist
Source: Romancing Mister Bridgerton
“When you can't do anything else to a boy, you can make him wash his face.”
E. W. Howe (1853–1937) Novelist, magazine and newspaper editor
Travel Letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913), p120.
Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American writer
Editorial, Hartford Courant (27 August 1897); this remark was reportedly quoted by Mark Twain and it has become often attributed to him, but the context of the statement might indicate the contrary situation
Paraphrased variant: Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
Variant: Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada
Reuters News Agency (October 10, 2005)
2007, 2008