Quotes, Objectives and Rambling

Great quotes by and about writers:

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Benjamin Franklin

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.

Mark Twain

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

Norman Mailer

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.

Ernest Hemingway

The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.

W. Somerset Maugham

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

Samuel Johnson

You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don't labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.

Horace (BC 65-8) Latin lyric poet.

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.

W. H. Auden

Writing is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.

Winston Churchill

I used to really envy you for being a writer – until I saw what you had to go through.

Cindy Evans, a proof reader on Blood Stained.



Well I made it within three years (Thank you, Mr. Twain); writing is worse than childbirth (But you’re forgiven for being a man with nothing to compare that to, Mr. Mailer); the chosen few are why I love my proof readers (Thank you, Horace); I’ve sure learned how to fling! (Thank you, Mr. Churchill) – And I still don’t know how to reply to Cindy. A “Thank you” for acknowledging masochism seems absurd. (Insert smiley here)

All of the great writers, be it of prose, poetry or music, I have known or studied were/are neurotic. Those who claim their do-do doesn’t stink are one of two things: A liar or a poor talent. I have begun reading some Best Sellers without the inclination to finish, and I have pulled a lot of my inspiration from unknowns. It’s insane how many gifted artists lie sleeping beneath a blanket of self doubt. It is also sheer madness how much money is poured into promoting so-so work.

Then there are the True Greats, writers who have the Big Daddy gift that pulls readers into their world for a breathlessly intoxicating visit, only to leave completely changed. Ernest Hemingway said we all are apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master; I, for one, am bold enough to disagree. The fine arts may be subjective for critics, but for artisans it is often completely abstract and objective. The idea of a flying horse, a cat who speaks human, a fish that lives on land or a little boy slaying a whale (we all know that one!) can and does live through imagination.

In this world of reality television shows, true crime buffs and historians on soap boxes, fantasy is a freedom so many of us are forgetting.

My book Interference keeps up with the spirit world but probes deeper than Whispers did into theological debate and structure. That’s due out sometime this spring or summer. The book I am co-writing with Daniel Kelly is technically written as fiction but based on a lot of true events. That’s my last dance with reality for awhile. When that’s finished I am forging ahead with Nocturna, a crazy – no insane – depiction of a town that sleeps all day and lives at night with psychological booby traps reminiscent of Twin Peaks meets The Walton’s.

Ernest Hemingway is often cited as writing in the manner with which he talked. I, on the other hand, write in the manner with which I think, and believe you me, sometimes that’s just completely bizarre.

Maybe that’s why I get along so well with horror writers…