# [Readlists](http://readlists.com/) - [Log in with Readability](http://readlists.com/login) - [Make a Readlist](http://readlists.com/new) # Timeless Advice on Writing from Famous Authors ## Created by [brainpicker](http://readlists.com/user/brainpicker) on Jun 18 2012 Words of wisdom from history’s greatest masters of the craft. # Export - [Send to Kindle](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/kindle) - [Send to iPhone/iPad](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/download/epub) - [Send to Readmill](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/download/epub) - [Save to Dropbox](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/download/epub) - [Email e-book](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/download/epub) - [Download e-book](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/download/epub) # Share - [Share on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=readlists&text=%E2%80%9CTimeless%20advice%20on%20writing%20from%20famous%20authors%E2%80%9D%20http://readlists.com/cdbd013d) - [Share on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://readlists.com/cdbd013d&t=Timeless%20advice%20on%20writing%20from%20famous%20authors) - [Embed](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Anne Lamott: Writing and Why Perfectionism Kills Creativity](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/11/22/bird-by-bird-anne-lamott/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Stephen King: Writing and the Art of “Creative Sleep”:](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/14/stephen-king-on-writing-and-creative-sleep/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/21/elmore-leonard-10-rules-of-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "If it sounds like writing … rewrite it." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Michael Lewis on Writing, Money, and the Necessary Self-Delusion of Creativity](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/26/michael-lewis-on-writing) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "When you’re trying to create a career as a writer, a little delusional thinking goes a long way." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Annie Dillard on Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/09/annie-dillard-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Susan Sontag on Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/07/25/susan-sontag-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "There is a great deal that either has to be given up or be taken away from you if you are going to succeed in writing a body of work." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ray Bradbury: How List-Making Can Boost Your Creativity](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/18/ray-bradbury-on-lists/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> How to feel your way toward something honest, hidden under the trapdoor on the top of your skull. - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Italo Calvino on Writing: Insights from 40+ Years of His Letters](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/06/10/italo-calvino-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "To write well about the elegant world you have to know it and experience it to the depths of your being… what matters is not whether you love it or hate it, but only to be quite clear about your position regarding it." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Isabel Allende: Writing Brings Order to the Chaos of Life](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/02/18/isabel-allende-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [David Foster Wallace: Writing, Death, and Redemption](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/12/david-foster-wallace-on-writing-death-and-redemption/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "You don’t have to think very hard to realize that our dread of both relationships and loneliness … has to do with angst about death, the recognition that I’m going to die, and die very much alone, and the rest of the world is going to go merrily on without me." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ernest Hemingway : Writing, Knowledge, and the Danger of Ego](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/19/hemingway-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "All bad writers are in love with the epic." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Stephen King: The Adverb Is Not Your Friend](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/03/13/stephen-king-on-adverbs/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Kurt Vonnegut: 8 Rules for a Great Story](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/03/kurt-vonnegut-on-writing-stories/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Henry Miller's 11 Commandments of Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/22/henry-miller-on-writing/) <www.brainpickings.org> "Work on one thing at a time until finished." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Malcolm Cowley: The Four Stages of Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/05/malcolm-cowley-four-stages-of-writing-paris-review/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Advice on Writing: Collected Wisdom from Modernity’s Greatest Writers](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/12/29/advice-to-writers/) <www.brainpickings.org> "Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [John Steinbeck: 6 Tips on Writing, and a Disclaimer](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/12/john-steinbeck-six-tips-on-writing/) <www.brainpickings.org> "Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Zadie Smith: 10 Rules of Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/19/zadie-smith-10-rules-of-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand — but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Susan Orlean on Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/03/12/susan-orlean-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Secret of Great Writing (1938)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/08/f-scott-fitzgerld-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Nothing any good isn’t hard." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [E. B. White: Egoism and the Art of the Essay](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/18/e-b-white-on-egoism-and-the-art-of-the-essay/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays" - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [E. B. White: Why Brevity Is Not the Gold Standard for Style](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/10/e-b-white-letters/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Writing is not an exercise in excision, it’s a journey into sound." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ray Bradbury: Creative Purpose in the Face of Rejection](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/05/21/snoopys-guide-to-the-writing-life-ray-bradbury/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The blizzard doesn’t last forever; it just seems so." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Mary Karr: The Magnetism and Madness of the Written Word](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/31/why-we-write-mary-karr/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Kurt Vonnegut: How to Write With Style and the 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word (1985)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/14/how-to-write-with-style-kurt-vonnegut/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ann Patchett: What Now?](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/02/26/what-now-ann-patchett/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Mary Gordon: The Joy of Notebooks and Writing by Hand as a Creative Catalyst](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/02/22/mary-gordon-writers-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "However thoroughly we lose ourselves in the vortex of our invention, we inhabit a corporeal world." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [H. P. Lovecraft: Advice to Aspiring Writers (1920)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/11/h-p-lovecraft-advice-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe’s will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Henry Miller: Reflections on Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/30/henry-miller-reflections-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Understanding is not a piercing of the mystery, but an acceptance of it, a living blissfully with it, in it, through and by it." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Margaret Atwood: 10 Rules of Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/05/margaret-atwood-10-rules-of-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "­Do back exercises. Pain is distracting." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [David Foster Wallace: The Nature of the Fun and Why Writers Write](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/06/the-nature-of-fun-david-foster-wallace/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Joy Williams: Why Writers Write](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/01/joy-williams-on-why-writers-write/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "A writer loves the dark, loves it, but is always fumbling around in the light." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Joan Didion: Ego, Grammar, and the Impetus to Write](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/16/why-i-write-joan-didion/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [David Ogilvy: 10 No-Bullshit Tips on Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/07/david-ogilvy-on-writing/) <www.brainpickings.org> "Never write more than two pages on any subject." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [George Orwell: The Four Motives for Writing (1946)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/25/george-orwell-why-i-write/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Sheer egoism… Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ezra Pound: A Few Don’ts for Those Beginning to Write Verse (1913)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/21/ezra-pound-a-few-donts/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Consider the way of the scientists rather than the way of an advertising agent for a new soap." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ray Bradbury: Storytelling and Human Nature (1963)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/22/ray-bradbury-story-of-a-writer-1963/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Man has always been half-monster, half-dreamer." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Joseph Conrad: Writing and the Role of the Artist (1897)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/03/joseph-conrad-on-art/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Helen Dunmore: 9 Rules of Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/09/helen-dunmore-rules-of-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [E. B. White: The Role and Responsibility of the Writer (1969)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/17/e-b-white-paris-review-interview/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Jack Kerouac: 30 Beliefs and Techniques for Prose and Life](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/22/jack-kerouac-belief-and-technique-for-modern-prose/) <www.brainpickings.org> "No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Raymond Chandler on Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/08/raymond-chandler-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Walter Benjamin: The Writer’s Technique in Thirteen Theses](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/15/the-writers-technique-in-thirteen-theses-walter-benjamin/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The more circumspectly you delay writing down an idea, the more maturely developed it will be on surrendering itself." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [28-Year-Old Susan Sontag on the Four People a Great Writer Must Be](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/06/05/susan-sontag-on-writing-2/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "A great writer has all 4 — but you can still be a good writer with only 1 and 2." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [10 Tips on Writing from Joyce Carol Oates](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/07/19/joyce-carol-oates-10-tips-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Don’t try to anticipate an ideal reader — or any reader. He/she might exist — but is reading someone else." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Neil Gaiman: 8 Rules of Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/28/neil-gaiman-8-rules-of-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Anaïs Nin: Why Emotional Excess is Essential to Writing and Creativity](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/03/anais-nin-on-emotion-and-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Neil Gaiman’s Advice to Aspiring Writers](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/11/neil-gaiman-advice-to-writers/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Jorge Luis Borges on Writing: Wisdom from His Most Candid Interviews](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/03/jorge-luis-borges-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "A writer’s work is the product of laziness." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Herbert Spencer: The Philosophy of Style, the Economy of Attention, and the Ideal Writer (1852)](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/03/19/herbert-spencer-philosophy-of-style-ideal-writer/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "To have a specific style is to be poor in speech." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Charles Bukowski on Writing and His Insane Daily Routine](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/04/charles-bukowski-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Writing is like going to bed with a beautiful woman and afterwards she gets up, goes to her purse and gives me a handful of money." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Samuel Johnson on Writing and Creative Doggedness](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/18/samuel-johnson-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Edgar Allan Poe: The Joy of Marginalia and What Handwriting Reveals about Character](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/17/edgar-allan-poe-marginalia/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "In the marginalia … we talk only to ourselves; we therefore talk freshly — boldly — originally — with abandonment — without conceit." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Kurt Vonnegut: The Writer’s Responsibility, the Limitations of the Brain, and Why the Universe Exists: A Rare 1974 WNYC Interview](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/12/11/vonnegut-wnyc-interview/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "We have such a young culture that there is an opportunity to contribute wonderful new myths to it, which will be accepted." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ernest Hemingway on Not Writing for Free and How to Run a First-Rate Publication](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/12/04/hemingway-on-not-writing-for-free/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> Find the best writers, pay them to write, and avoid typos at all costs. - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [How to Be a Writer: Ernest Hemingway’s Advice to Aspiring Authors](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/11/13/hemingway-on-writing-2/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "As a writer you should not judge. You should understand." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Eudora Welty: The Poetics of Place and Writing as an Explorer’s Map of the Unknown](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/31/eudora-welty-on-writing-place/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "No art ever came out of not risking your neck." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Alice Munro’s Nobel Prize Interview: Writing, Women, and the Rewards of Storytelling](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/12/13/alice-munros-nobel-prize-interview/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "I want my stories to move people … to feel some kind of reward from the writing." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Samuel Delany: Good Writing vs. Talented Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/20/good-writing-vs-talented-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Talented writing makes things happen in the reader’s mind — vividly, forcefully — that good writing, which stops with clarity and logic, doesn’t." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [William Faulkner: Writing, the Purpose of Art, Working in a Brothel, and the Meaning of Life](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/25/william-faulkner-paris-review-interview-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The only environment the artist needs is whatever peace, whatever solitude, and whatever pleasure he can get at not too high a cost." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Anaïs Nin: Writing, the Future of the Novel, and How Keeping a Diary Enhances Creativity: Wisdom from a Rare 1947 Chapbook](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/20/anais-nin-on-writing-1947/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "It is in the movements of emotional crisis that human beings reveal themselves most accurately." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [John Updike: Writing and Death](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/10/john-updike-on-writing-and-death/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time?" - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Charles Bukowski Debunks the “Tortured Genius” Myth of Creativity](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/19/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer-charles-bukowski/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don’t do it." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Mary Gaitskill: Why Writers Write and The Six Motives of Creativity](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/28/mary-gaitskill-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> The art of integrating the ego and the impulse for empathy in a dynamic call and response. - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Vladimir Nabokov: Writing, Reading, and the Three Qualities a Great Storyteller Must Have](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/21/vladimir-nabokov-on-storytelling/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall story there is a shimmering go-between. That go-between, that prism, is the art of literature." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Joan Didion: Telling Stories, the Economy of Words, Starting Out as a Writer, and Facing Rejection](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/19/joan-didion-telling-stories/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Short stories demand a certain awareness of one’s own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Herman Melville’s Daily Routine and Thoughts on the Writing Life](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/30/herman-melville-daily-routine/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "A book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf — at any rate it is safer from criticism." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech: The Writer as a Booster of the Human Heart](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/10/william-faulkner-nobel-prize-acceptance-speech/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is … to help man endure by lifting his heart." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [John Updike: Making Money, How to Have a Productive Daily Routine, and the Most Important Things for Aspiring Writers to Know](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/24/john-updike-on-writing/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "In a country this large and a language even larger … there ought to be a living for somebody who cares and wants to entertain and instruct a reader." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Susan Sontag : Writing, Routines, Education, and Elitism in a 1992 Recording from the 92Y Archives](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/10/the-project-of-literature-susan-sontag-92y/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "To make your life being a writer, it’s an auto-slavery … you are both the slave and the task-master." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Chinua Achebe: The Meaning of Life and the Writer’s Responsibility in Society](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/11/chinua-achebe-meaning-of-life/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> The difference between blind optimism and the urge to improve the world’s imperfection. - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Leonard Cohen: Creativity, Hard Work, and Why You Should Never Quit Before You Know What It Is You’re Quitting](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/15/leonard-cohen-paul-zollo-creativity/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The cutting of the gem has to be finished before you can see whether it shines." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Ray Bradbury: What Failure Really Means, Why We Hate Work, and the Importance of Love in Creative Endeavors](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/16/ray-bradbury-work-failure-love/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> How working for the wrong motives poisons our creativity and warps our ideas of success and failure. - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Joyce Carol Oates: What Hemingway’s Early Stories Can Teach Us About Writing and the Defining Quality of Great Art](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/06/19/joyce-carol-oates-nypl-hemingway/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> On the elusive gift of blending austerity of craft with elasticity of allure. - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Willa Cather: Writing Through Troubled Times](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/06/17/willa-cather-letters-2/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The test of one’s decency is how much of a fight one can put up after one has stopped caring, and after one has found out that one can never please the people they wanted to please." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Anthony Trollope: Witty and Wise Advice on How to Be a Successful Writer](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/04/24/anthony-trollope-secret-of-writing-letter/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "My belief of book writing is much the same as my belief as to shoemaking. The man who will work the hardest at it, and will work with the most honest purpose, will work the best." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [William Styron: Why Formal Education Is a Waste of Time for Writers](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/06/11/william-styron-writing-education/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "For a person whose sole burning ambition is to write — like myself — college is useless beyond the Sophomore year." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Madeleine L’Engle: Creativity, Censorship, Writing, and the Duty of Children’s Books](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/04/10/dare-to-be-creative-madeleine-l-engle/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "We find what we are looking for. If we are looking for life and love and openness and growth, we are likely to find them. If we are looking for witchcraft and evil, we’ll likely find them, and we may get taken over by them." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Saul Bellow: How Writers and Artists Save Us from the “Moronic Inferno” of Our Time](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/04/the-distracted-public-saul-bellow/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The writer cannot make the seas of distraction stand still, but he [or she] can at times come between the madly distracted and the distractions." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Mary Oliver: The Mystery of the Human Psyche, the Secret of Great Poetry, and How Rhythm Makes Us Come Alive](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/04/10/mary-oliver-poetry-handbook-rhythm/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue. When it does, it grows sweeter." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Schopenhauer on Style](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/20/schopenhauer-on-style/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Flannery O’Connor: Why the Grotesque Appeals to Us, Plus a Rare Recording of Her Reading](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/25/flannery-o-connor-grotesque-reading/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Annie Dillard: The Art of the Essay and Narrative Nonfiction vs. Poetry and Short Stories](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/26/annie-dillard-on-the-art-of-the-essay/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Writers serve as the memory of a people. They chew over our public past." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [C.S. Lewis: The 3 Ways of Writing for Children and the Key to Authenticity in All Writing](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/06/18/c-s-lewis-writing-for-children/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "The only moral that is of any value is that which arises inevitably from the whole cast of the author’s mind." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Nietzsche: 10 Rules for Writers](http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/08/08/nietzsches-10-rules-for-writers/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "Style ought to prove that one believes in an idea; not only that one thinks it but also feels it." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [William Faulkner: Writing, the Human Dilemma, and Why We Create](http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/25/william-faulkner-university-of-virginia-recording/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "It’s the most satisfying occupation man has discovered yet, because you never can quite do it as well as you want to, so there’s always something to wake up tomorrow morning to do." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [David Foster Wallace: The Redemptive Power of Reading and the Future of Writing in the Age of Information](http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/19/david-foster-wallace-charlie-rose-interview/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> The fun of reading as "an exchange between consciousnesses, a way for human beings to talk to each other about stuff we can’t normally talk about." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [Zadie Smith: The Psychology of the Two Types of Writers](http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/12/zadie-smith-writing-that-crafty-feeling/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "It’s a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word." - Read: [Now](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) - [Later](http://readlists.com/cdbd013d/) # [George Orwell: Writing, How to Counter the Mindless Momentum of Language, and the Four Questions a Great Writer Must Ask Herself](http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/18/george-orwell-writing-politics-and-the-english-language/) Maria Popova <www.brainpickings.org> "By using stale metaphors, similes and idioms, you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself." 90. <div style="display: none;">Add</div> <div style="display: none;">One moment, Readability is grabbing the title, author and description.</div> <div style="display: none;">Sorry, we're having trouble parsing that article. 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