January | 2017 | Guy Portman's Blog

23 More Quotes about Writing

Jan 27 2017

Here are 23 more quotes about writing, none of which have featured in my previous quote-dedicated blog posts. I hope these will amuse and inspire my fellow authors and readers.

It takes an awful lot of time to not write a book. — Douglas Adams

I wrote a few children’s books. Not on purpose. — Steven Wright

Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke. — F. Scott Fitzgerald

You can fix anything but a blank page. — Nora Roberts

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. — Cyril Connolly

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter. — Blaise Pascal

The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. — Robert Cormier

The road to hell is paved with adverbs. — Stephen King

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. — Dr. Samuel Johnson

There’s not much to be said about the period except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough. — William Zinsser

No one is drawn to writing about being happy or feelings of joy. — Bret Easton Ellis

Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial “we.” — Mark Twain

A person who publishes a book appears willfully in the public eye with his pants down. — Edna St Vincent Millay

There is probably no hell for authors in the next world — they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this. — C. N. Bovee

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor. — Edgar Rice Burroughs

My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water. — Mark Twain

The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. — Arthur Schopenhauer

I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me. — Hunter S. Thompson

Don’t classify me, read me. I’m a writer, not a genre. — Carlos Fuentes

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. — Jack London

A good book isn’t written, it’s rewritten. ― Phyllis A. Whitney

If writers were good businessmen, they’d have too much sense to be writers. — Irvin S. Cobb

Easy reading is damn hard writing. — Nathaniel Hawthorne

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23 Quotes about Writing

Jan 20 2017

Here are 23 amusing and/or pertinent quotes about writing which might be of interest to my fellow authors and readers.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. — W. Somerset Maugham

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time. — Howard Nemerov

I hate writing, I love having written. — Dorothy Parker

The scariest moment is always just before you start. — Stephen King

The first draft of anything is shit. — Ernest Hemingway

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. — Douglas Adams

Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay. — Christopher Hitchens

A bad review may spoil your breakfast, but you shouldn’t allow it to spoil your lunch. — Kingsley Amis

I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better. — A. J. Liebling

Poetic license is not a license to scribe recklessly. ― C. Kennedy

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it. ― Mark Twain

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. — Richard Bach

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. — Stephen King

Don’t get it right – get it WRITTEN! — Lee Child

If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise: attack it at an hour when it isn’t expecting it. — H.G. Wells

Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money. — Jules Renard

In the end, you have to just sit down, shut up, and write. — Natalie Goldberg

Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters. — Neil Gaiman

The pen is mightier than the sword and considerably easier to write with. — Marty Feldman

I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork. — Peter De Vries

Easy writing makes hard reading. — Ernest Hemingway

As for the adjective, when in doubt leave it out. — Mark Twain

I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper. — Steve Martin

There will be a second instalment soon.

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My Favourite Authors: their best and worst

Jan 13 2017

I have my favourite authors, but that is not to say that I like all of their books. This week’s post is dedicated to what in my humble opinion is the following 4 authors’ best and worst books. Click on the links to read my reviews:

Vladimir Nabokov(April 22nd, 1899 – July 2nd, 1977)

Admittedly I have only read a couple of books penned by the Russian-American author and entomologist.

My favourite: Lolita

The protagonist, Humbert Humbert, is an intellectual with an all-consuming craving for young girls, or nymphets as he refers to them. After his wife leaves him for another man, Humbert Humbert becomes a live-in tutor…(more)

My least favourite: Pnin

Despite having lived in America for many years, conservative and eccentric Russian professor Timofei Pnin has never fully grasped the subtleties of the English language…(more)

Chuck Palahniuk(Born: February 21st, 1962)

I have read many of this iconic transgressive fiction author’s works. Whilst I remain an avid fan, the quality of his books varies markedly in my opinion.

My favourite: Fight Club

The protagonist, who remains nameless, is an insomniac leading a bland corporate existence, investigating accidents for a car company, whose only concern is profit…(more)

My least favourite: Doomed

Doomed is the sequel to Damned and part two of a proposed Dante inspired trilogy. It sees the return of Damned’s protagonist – the plucky, post-life, plump, periphrastic, pubescent progeny of celebrity parents…(more)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn(December 11th, 1918 – August 3rd, 2008)

This controversial Russian author is one of my favourite writers. However…

My favourite: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a former POW serving a 10 year term in a Gulag on the Kazakh steppe for being a spy. He is innocent. The book chronicles a single day of his existence…(more)

My least favourite: August 1914

Set in the years leading up to The Revolution, this monumental book is Solzhenitsyn’s interpretation of a turbulent period in his country’s history, beginning with the outbreak of World War I…(more)

Bret Easton Ellis (Born: March 7th, 1964)

Easton Ellis achieved cult status for his outstanding works of transgressive fiction. In this reader’s opinion his later books are not as good as his early efforts.

My favourite: American Psycho

American Psycho is a highly controversial novel that brought its young author Bret Easton Ellis instant fame. The book is written from the perspective of a young Wall Street financier, Patrick Bateman…(more)

My least favourite: Lunar Park

Lunar Park is a mock memoir that begins with a parodic account of Bret Easton Ellis’s early fame. The young New York resident’s existence consists of endless parties, casual relationships, spiralling drug use...(more)

2017’s Most Anticipated Books

Jan 06 2017

My first blog post of the New Year is dedicated to some of the most anticipated books of 2017. I hope this will be of interest to my fellow authors and readers. Here are 9 of 2017’s most anticipated books (fiction only). Click on the book titles to find out more.

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

Award-winning author and feminist Gay’s latest offering is a short story collection exploring American women’s experiences. It was released on January 3rd.

Genre: Feminism

Little Heaven by Nick Cutter