Writing quotes I found while perusing the files on my laptop

[apocalypsos]

A book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then. -- C.S. Lewis

Being a writer means having homework for the rest of your life. -- Lawrence Kasdan (*snerk* It's like I always say ... I do English homework for fun.)

The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the "curiosity" level. -- a rejection slip for The Diary of Anne Frank

These stories have trees in them. -- a rejection slip for A River Runs Through It

One has to be just a little crazy to write a great novel. -- John Gardner (Jesus, I don't think I know any writers who aren't at least a little nuts.)

There are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid. -- Katherine Paterson (Well, I know it's helped me. :))

Every writer, without exception, is a masochist, a sadist, a peeping Tom, an exhibitionist, a narcissist, an 'injustice collector' and a depressed person constantly haunted by fears of unproductivity. -- Edmund Bergler, M.D. (Yeah, that sounds about right.)

Writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators. -- William Saroyan

Getting even is one reason for writing. -- William Gass

Write to amuse? What an appalling suggestion! I write to make people anxious and miserable and to worsen their indigestion. -- Wendy Cope

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. -- Isaac Asimov

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy clothes and food. -- Erasmus

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. -- Groucho Marx

I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of William Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon. -- Bill Hirst

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. -- Agatha Christie (I had to add that one just because that totally works for me.)

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

a depressed person constantly haunted by fears of unproductivity.

Omigod, yes.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___destijl/]

I totally have to show these to my dad next time he works on his book.

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of William Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon. -- Bill Hirst

This...made me double over and nearly choke on my fruit n' berry cornflakes. Hee!

[laughingrat.livejournal.com]

I like them all! The last one, though, is great.

Me, I get my ideas in the shower. That's why I bought a small blackboard that I put up right next to the tub, and have a piece of chalk hanging on a string right by it. I just write the ideas down on the chalkboard as they pop into my head.

You think I'm joking.

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

Actually...that's a great idea. I'd toyed with finding soap crayons or something, but I may have to investigate this.

Thanks!

[laughingrat.livejournal.com]

Oh, soap crayons, now that sounds fun!

We've got a place locally that's great for tiny chalkboards and weird school/office supplies...this giant store that caters to homeschoolers. Wild stuff in there. But god, I love my mini-chalkboard. :)

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

If I could find said crayons, I would be all over them. No luck so far, though.

I'll be on the lookout for a mini-chalkboard, though, as I've just started plotting again...and I get lots of my ideas in the shower as well. Such a cool idea. :)

[budclare.livejournal.com]

I desperately want soap crayons, but I'd end up scaring my roommates. :(

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I always get such great ideas in the shower--articulate ideas, even!--but it seems like drying my hair pulls them all out. Damnit.

I don't have roommates to scare--aside from the cat, and she'd probably just try to eat them--but I can't FIND them. They were all the rage when I was a kid, but they seem to have vanished...

[budclare.livejournal.com]

Google. :)

[azurelunatic]

Oh, man. I script great chunks of potential books in the shower. Sometimes by the time I've gotten out I lose them.

[laughingrat.livejournal.com]

See, me too. Phrasing, subjects, everything--right out the window. :( That board has saved my butt a few times! I don't use everything I jot down, but I'd rather have the option open than have just forgotten everything entirely. :-|

[azurelunatic]

Fortunately I have a lot of practice in reconstructing trains of thought.

I still need to write down that bunny for poor Dave and his roommate, though. (references my first novel-in-progress, ectogenesis.)

[blackgarden.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to add my favorite, which is:

Most of the time, being a writer means sitting in front of the computer and fighting the urge to play Minesweeper. -- Max Barry

[wicked-dragon-x.livejournal.com]

Oh god yes. I've got all these writing projects -- some I want to do, some are assignments -- and no matter how compelling or important the project is, I can't resist the urge to play with Paint Shop. If I hide my Paint Shop icons (so I don't automatically click on it when I feel like it), I check Livejournal. If I hide the browser icon, I play Solitaire. If I finally just have the text program open, I end up coding webpages or read saved fanfics.

... You know, I do sound like I have ADD or something. "Yes, I know I only have a day to do eight assignments -- OOH! SHINY!"

[spherissa.livejournal.com]

my god you're my Twin!

[azurelunatic]

My best friend is IM programs. That way I have someone to bounce ideas off of. My worst enemy is Zuma or Bejeweled -- hell, if PopCap makes it, it's crack.

[blackgarden.livejournal.com]

My favorite timewaster is whatsbetter.com. Sometimes having to choose between a guava and Bob Saget is all that matters in my world.

what is indeed

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

thanks for a new link to waste my time on (is there a point to it? am i supposed to guess what most people say? why does everybody disagree with me?).

i wonder if you know what happened to the get-fuzzy-feed by any chance? :S

Re: what is indeed

[blackgarden.livejournal.com]

There's no point to it, and yet it's the most addictive thing. And everybody disagrees with you because they're stupid; that's what I tell myself.

I think the Get Fuzzy feed disappeared over distribution issues. It now gets posted in comicgetfuzzy. :)

Re: what is indeed

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

good points all *goes to be disagreed with some more*

thank you, thank you, thank you, yay, i got my fuzzy back!
now to find another dilbert feed ...

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Minesweeper pisses me off. Because I always end up with two choices to continue and I always pick the mine.

For me, the urge to write and the urge to make LiveJournal icons constantly fight

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I always pick the mine.

*giggles* You, too? I much prefer Text Twist, Mahjong Solitaire, Collapse, or Alchemy. Yahoo Games owns me hardcore.

I also rediscovered my NES ROMs yesterday, which was soooo not the thing I needed to find with TroNoWriMo on my hands. Now I'm torn between "Have to write, have to write!" and "OMGWTF, I still remember the cheat code for Contra!"

[kb9vcn.livejournal.com]

Not exactly a "writing" quote, but another Groucho quote:

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

[azurelunatic]

Amazing. That Groucho Marx quote is so, so me.

[gwen-louise.livejournal.com]

The Katherine Patterson one: you know how mostly if a teacher talks to a parent's about talking it'll be because a kid is talking too much? My parents kept getting: "Well I'm worried that Gwen's so quiet..." I think I scared them.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I got in trouble because I would rather read then do homework.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I maintain to this day that I got Class Bookworm not only because I always had my nose stuck in a book, but because I did so while going from one end of our high school to the other while dodging 350 7th-through-12th graders and still managing to make it to my next class before nearly everybody else. If that had been an Olypmpic event, I'd be a gold medalist.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

It's nice to know that many other writers are addled in the brain like I.

And Erasmus is so me.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. -- Agatha Christie

That happens to me frequently with fanfic. It's like one of those inspiration activities, for some bizarre reason. So is taking a bath, although bathtime doesn't yeild as good ficbunnies as dishes do.

Here's another quote for you:

"You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy clothes and food.
Bwah! That's my financial life, right there.

washing dishes

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

i heard a number of female thriller/suspense writers say the same thing as agatha christie. hands in warm soapy water, mind clear.

i do suspect it has more to do with them being female than being suspense writers though.