8/19/2023 0 Comments Bukowski author![]() ![]() and there never was.įor more first-hand insight on the writing life, see Zadie Smith's 10 rules of writing, Kurt Vonnegut's 8 guidelines for a great story, David Ogilvy's 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller's 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac's 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck's 6 pointers, Neil Gaiman's 8 rules, Margaret Atwood's 10 practical tips, and Susan Sontag's synthesized learnings. When it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. ![]() unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep over your kind. If you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your parents or to anybody at all, you're not ready.ĭon't be like so many writers, don't be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers, don't be dull and boring and pretentious, don't be consumed with self- love. if it never does roar out of you, do something else. If you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently. if you're trying to write like somebody else, forget about it. if it's hard work just thinking about doing it, don't do it. if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don't do it. if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it. if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it. Writing is my way of making other chances.If it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. I’ve never quite believed that one chance is all I get. “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” -Stephen Greenblatt “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” -F. “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” -John Edgar Wideman “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” -Denise Levertov “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” -E.L. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” -E.L. “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. “Let’s face it, writing is hell.” -William Styron “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” -Thomas Mann “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” -Paul Rudnick Writing is not only useless, it’s spoiled paper.” -Padget Powell “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you’re doing the whole time.” -Shelby Foote You can’t stop it.” -William Carlos Williams One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one’s luck.” -Iris Murdoch “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” -Pico Iyer “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” -Pico Iyer “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” -Anthony Powell “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” -Michael Cunningham Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” -Joy Williams “Writers end up writing stories-or rather, stories’ shadows-and they’re grateful if they can, but it is not enough. ![]()
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