“You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else.”
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Grace Paley31
American writer and activist 1922–2007Related quotes
“You become writer by writing . It is a yoga .”
R. K. Narayan (1906–2001) writer of Indian English literature
“You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.”
Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer
On devient bon écrivain comme on devient bon menuisier: en rabotant ses phrases.
As quoted in Anatole France en pantoufles by Jean-Jacques Brousson (1924); published in English as Anatole France Himself: A Boswellian Record by His Secretary, Jean-Jacques Brousson (1925), trans. John Pollock, p. 85
Variant translation: You become a good writer just as you become a good carpenter: by planing down your sentences.
“The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer.”
Harlan Ellison book Strange Wine
Voices of Vision: Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy, page 182 https://books.google.com/books/about/Voices_of_Vision.html?id=Nu4vUZT-7ToC&hl=en <br class="br">Source: Strange Wine
“Well, here you get to be a writer when there's absolutely nothing else you can do.”
Nelson Algren (1909–1981) American novelist, short story writer
"The Art of Fiction No. 11" (1955)
Context: I don't think the isolation of the American writer is a tradition; it's more that geographically he just is isolated, unless he happens to live in New York City. But I don't suppose there's a small town around the country that doesn't have a writer. The thing is that here you get to be a writer differently. I mean, a writer like Sartre decides, like any professional man, when he's fifteen, sixteen years old, that instead of being a doctor he's going to be a writer. And he absorbs the French tradition and proceeds from there. Well, here you get to be a writer when there's absolutely nothing else you can do. I mean, I don't know of any writers here who just started out to be writers, and then became writers. They just happen to fall into it.
“Oh, son, I wish you hadn’t become a scenario writer!”
S.J. Perelman (1904–1979) American humorist, author, and screenwriter
she sniffled.
"Aw, now, Moms," I comforted her, "it’s no worse than playing the piano in a call house."
"Strictly from Hunger", The Most of S. J. Perelman (1992) p. 45
“If you need drugs to be a good writer, you're not a good writer.”
Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter
The Rod Serling bio page on the Internet Movie DataBase.
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