Quotes of the Week

 

You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.

—Robin Williams

I have found that a story leaves a deeper impression when it is impossible to tell which side the author is on.

—Leo Tolstoy

Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words.

—Patti Smith

Don't use no double negatives.

Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.

The passive voice should never be employed.

You should not use a big word when a diminutive would suffice.

About those sentence fragments.

Avoid clichés like the plague.

—William Safire

Don’t describe it, show it. That’s what I try to teach all young writers—take it out! Don’t describe a purple sunset, make me see that it is purple.

—James Baldwin

You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly. You can’t write regularly and well. One should accept bad #writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.

—Jennifer Egan

The only thing that makes one an artist is making art. And that requires the precise opposite of hanging out; a deeply lonely and unglamorous task of tolerating oneself long enough to push something out.

—David Rakoff

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

—Annie Proulx