Thursday, April 24, 2008

Stolen Words

Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction. ~Dylan Thomas, letter to Vernon Watkins, March 1938

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. ~Ray Bradbury

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are neat quotes. Love the lttle pearls of wisdom.

Lavinia said...

Words of wit and wisdom here...we can all use more of those.

Thanks for posting this.

Pappy said...

Old Mark Twain always hit that nail with the first swing of his hammer.

Keanan Brand said...

Glad my lack of words--thus the stolen ones--was still helpful. I do like Twain's unconventional advice, and the line about writing be acceptable schizophrenia. Makes me look almost normal, then!