“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Book II, ch. 18.
Discourses
“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Book II, ch. 18.
Discourses
Ernest Hemingway book Death in the Afternoon
Hemingway's famous iceberg theory of writing.
Source: Death in the Afternoon (1932), Ch. 16
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer
Penguins and Golden Calves (2003)
Context: I have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.
Scarlett Thomas (1972) British writer
Source: Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories
Luis J. Rodriguez (1954) pinto poetry, Chicanismo, and Chicano literature
On his writing preferences in “An Interview with Luis J. Rodriguez” https://www.epl.org/an-interview-with-luis-j-rodriguez-2/ (Evanston Public Library; 2011)
Jamaica Kincaid (1949) Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer
On her views of writing in “Jamaica Kincaid: Does Truth Have a Tone?” https://www.guernicamag.com/does-truth-have-a-tone/ in Guernica (2013 Jun 17)
E. B. White (1899–1985) American writer
Letter to Shirley Wiley (30 March 1954), in The Letters of E. B. White (1989), p. 391