A couple of writing quotes

I've decided to cover over the transparent part of my cube wall at work, to reduce the feeling that people are looking over my shoulder. I printed up a nice rendition of my favorite H. G. Wells line—"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft"—in Zapfino and posted that over part of the transparent wall last week, but there was still a fair bit of wall and I was having trouble finding some of the items I used to have on my cube wall at my old job. Found them tonight, but in the meantime I came across a bunch of other quotations about writing. Here are two I won't be using at work. First, for those of you in the midst of novels:

It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.

—Virginia Woolf

And then there's this:

Writing is a lot like sex. At first you do it because you like it. Then you find yourself doing it for a few close friends and people you like. But if you're any good at all ... you end up doing it for money.

—Unknown

Ooh, and here's a good one. About the opening of Kafka's Metamorphosis ("As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams" etc), Gabriel García Márquez said: "When I read the line I thought to myself I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago. So I immediately started writing short stories."

One Response to “A couple of writing quotes”

  1. irilyth

    I liked Neil Gaiman’s recent post about this, especially the “Sometimes the bear’s on top” line, although it sounds much dirtier than it is (to my ear at least). It may not be sufficiently quotable to quote, but I figured I’d mention it anyway.

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