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Let those who want to save the world if you can get to see it clear and as a whole. Then any part you make will represent the whole if it's made truly...more

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if I had waited long enough I probably never would have written anything at all since there is a tendency when you really begin to learn something abo...more

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Every novel which is truly written contributes to the total of knowledge which is there at the disposal of the next writer who comes, but the next wri...more

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I was trying to learn to write, commencing with the simplest things, and one of the simplest things of all and the most fundamental is violent death.

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Find what gave you emotion; what the action was that gave you excitement. Then write it down making it clear so that the reader can see it too. Prose ...more

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When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. If a writer can make people live there ...more

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This too to remember. If a man writes clearly enough any one can see if he fakes. If he mystifies to avoid a straight statement, which is very differe...more

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I was trying to write then and I found the greatest difficulty, aside from knowing what you really felt, rather that what you were supposed to feel, a...more

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Mice: But reading all the good writers might discourage you.Y.C.: Then you ought to be discouraged.

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I love to write. But it has never gotten any easier to do and you can't expect it to if you keep trying for something better than you can do.

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…Writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it is more difficult than anything else that I ...more

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There is seven-eights of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the...more

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You know you’re writing well when you’re throwing good stuff into the wastebasket.

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All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you feel that it all happened to y...more

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You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or rather you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writ...more