A Quote by William Zinsser
Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.
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I am human. I am messy. I'm not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I'm right. I am just trying - trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself.
I don’t ask writers about their work habits. I really don’t care. Joyce Carol Oates says somewhere that when writers ask each other what time they start working and when they finish and how much time they take for lunch, they’re actually trying to find out, "Is he as crazy as I am?" I don’t need that question answered.
Writers in Latin America live in a reality that is extraordinarily demanding. Surprisingly, our answer to these demands protects and develops our individuality. I feel I am not alone in trying to give their voice to those who don't have it.
I don't think of gay writers. I mean if you were to say to me who are the straight writers, well, you wouldn't ask me that question. So for me to identify a little tribe of gay writers, I don't know.
They say that to be a writer you must first have an unhappy childhood. I don't know if unhappiness is necessary, but I think maybe some children who have suffered a loss too great for words grow up into writers who are always trying to find those words, trying to find a meaning for the way they have lived
If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no'.
I am my own biggest critic ... I'm constantly criticizing myself, constantly trying to find ways to better myself and ... compete and, you know, just be the best.
Writers often torture themselves trying to get the words right. Sometimes you must lower your expectations and just finish it.
When I say you don't have to be a believer, you just have to say - you have to ask the question to say am I concerned about the tough questions in life, being introspective enough to say, who am I, why am I, what am I?
All too often we fail to ask what we are trying to sustain. Ultimately, sustainability must be measured by the endurance of thriving human communities.
We're not always in the position that we want to be at. We're constantly growing, we're constantly making mistakes, we're constantly trying to express ourselves and trying to actualize our dreams.
I would say the next imminent hot writers are often the writers from the decade before you were born.
Often when I'm trying to make tough decisions, I rely on the lessons my father taught me and ask myself, 'What Would Tony Say?'
I am constantly evolving, constantly trying to be the best I can be, and learning from things that didn't go too well is definitely a way of doing that.
I am not at all justifying Kapil's abusive behavior. I am only trying to say that when you know the person is depressed, you are still publishing negative stories about him and trying to break him. Why are you instigating him when you know his mental state? It looks as though people have an agenda.
That famous writer’s block is a myth as far as I’m concerned. I think bad writers must have a great difficulty writing. They don’t want to do it. They have become writers out of reasons of ambition. It must be a great strain to them to make marks on a page when they really have nothing much to say, and don’t enjoy doing it. I’m not so sure what I have to say but I certainly enjoy making sentences.
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