“This is where I begin to do the writing. I am now going to be the pen and not the paper.”
Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director
Nagiko
The Pillow Book
“You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.”
Letter to Denis Diderot, as quoted in The Affairs of Women : A Modern Miscellany (2006) by Colin Bingham
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Catherine the Great29
Empress of Russia 1729–1796Related quotes
William Zinsser (1922–2015) writer, editor, journalist, literary critic, professor
Introduction, p. vii.
On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976)
“If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.”
Juan Ramón Jimenéz (1881–1958) Spanish poet
As quoted in the epigraph in Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury; Susie Salmon also uses this quote in The Lovely Bones, and Daniel Quinn published a book in 2007 with the title If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways (2007)
Spanish: "Si os dan papel pautado, escribid por el otro lado" (If they give you lined paper, write on the other side)
"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way" is often attributed to William Carlos Williams who was contemporary with JRJ.
Misattributed
“If they give you lined paper, write the other way.”
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American poet
“When they give you lined paper, write the other way.”
Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451
Misattributed
Variant: If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.
Source: Epigraph, in Fahrenheit 451 a translation of a statement by Juan Ramón Jiménez
“I always start writing with a clean piece of paper and a dirty mind.”
Patrick Dennis (1921–1976) Novelist
“I don't like to write anything down on paper that I would not say to myself.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Alexandros Panagoulis (1939–1976) Greek politician and poet
My Address, written in Military Prisons of Bogiati, 5 June 1971 – After beating.
Poetry, Vi scrivo da un carcere in Grecia (I write you from a prison in Greece) (1974)