It takes some courage to write fiction about politically controversial topics. The dread is you'll be labeled a political writer.
Barbara Kingsolver
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HARUKI MURAKAMI I am political. But not politically active. I'm not my dad. I'll never write polemic, as he ...
KATE THOMPSON No one can teach writing, but classes may stimulate the urge to write. If you are born a writer, you...
CYNTHIA OZICK On sensitive issues, talk isn't cheap - it takes real courage to pry open topics nailed shut.
MARVIN OLASKY I don't write tracts, I write novels. I'm not a preacher, I'm a fiction writer.
URSULA K. LE GUIN I hope to build a reputation as a science-fiction writer. That's the pitch. We'll see.
KURT VONNEGUT A non-fiction writer pretty much has the shape of the figure in front of him or her and goes about r...
CHAIM POTOK When you decide you want to become a television writer, you naively assume it's going to be like...
JEFFREY KLARIK Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need ...
RAYMOND CHANDLER All the definitions people want to put on you in terms of what kind of writer you are come with hidd...
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CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI If you write any kind of fiction about America, you immediately have to start doing some research ab...
WARREN ELLIS A tour of the Mexico City of Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo led by Barbara Kingsolver would be nice. ...
CATHY MARIE BUCHANAN Obviously I don't want to make a film that offends people, but the whole world is so politically...
NEILL BLOMKAMP All you can be sure about in a political-minded writer is that if his work should last you will have...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY It takes great courage to write great books. Find your courage and find your voice.
KRISTEN LAMB If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!
JACKIE COLLINS If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!.
JACKIE COLLINS The most difficult thing about living as a writer is precisely 'having to write.' Pretending...
KIM YOUNG-HA Contrary to all those times you've heard a writer confess at a reading that he writes fiction be...
PAUL HARDING To write is to reveal oneself.
When I write something, fiction or non-fiction, I do not expect ...
SANHITA BARUAH You'll be okay. No matter what shape reality takes, you can handle it.
SHIRO AMANO Let's face it: pop music in its myriad permutations will always be sexually presumptuous, racial...
DAN HILL I used to dread going on 'Politically Incorrect' with 'up and coming' comedians. But...
ANN COULTER I will read anything by Laura Hillenbrand, Walter Isaacson, Barbara Kingsolver, John le Carre, John ...
HILLARY CLINTON Writing is work. It takes a lot of contemplation, concentration, and out-and-out sweat. People tend ...
WENDELIN VAN DRAANEN Any adjective you put before the noun 'writer' is going to be limiting in some way. Whether ...
ALICE MCDERMOTT If I'm ever having a good time, I'll write about it so I'll remember it.
BRANTLEY GILBERT Read good books. Read bad books - and figure out why you don't like them. Then don't do it w...
PATRICIA BRIGGS I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer shoul...
JOHN BOYNE if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it...
CHARLES BUKOWSKI His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha...
TEKOA MANNING As a writer I've learned certain lessons. One of them is to be careful about how you put a view,...
ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH If you're not controversial, you'll never break through the din of all the commentary.
ROGER STONE I don't believe a poet has a better hold on truth or morality than a fiction writer has. And I d...
COLUM MCCANN There's a variety and depth to the song topics I get to write about in children's music and ...
LISA LOEB I don't mean to be a diva, but some days you wake up and you're Barbara Streisand.
COURTNEY LOVE You need the commitment of people that aren't worried about that next election, who are going to...
JEFF FITZGERALD I'm a fiction writer, and I do write essays, but I am not a poet. And I absolutely reject the ph...
CYNTHIA OZICK I'll never tell a lie. I'll never make a misleading statement. I'll never betray the con...
JIMMY CARTER What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, ...
LUANNE RICE When you're a mid-list writer, it pays to write fast.
CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO I would be happy to be labeled as a writer of offbeat stories. I don't know how to do anything e...
CAROLINE THOMPSON Non-fiction is a big responsibility. Rationality. Facts. The urgent need to reflect some small aspec...
KATHERINE DUNN Adam Quinn is a paid political operative whose mission is to politically undermine the governor. Thi...
JASON GIBBS There's a district policy that requires teachers to ensure that for all topics, particularly controv...
BOB COLLINS I never learned to be a writer. I never took screenwriting courses. I never read anyone's script...
DEREK CIANFRANCE Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be l...
GARRISON KEILLOR If you wish to be a writer, write.
EPICTETUS I can't recommend technical writing as a day job for fiction writers because it's going to b...
TED CHIANG If you write fiction you are, in a sense, corrupted. There's a tremendous corruptibility for the fic...
ANTHONY BURGESS The thing about being a mystery writer, what marks a mystery writer out from a chick lit author or h...
TANA FRENCH I am careful about fiction. A novel is not a tract or an essay. If I want to write about land reform...
VIKRAM SETH It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you...
WARREN BUFFETT Occasionally, you'll get a 'District 9,' a film that is politically charged, but there i...
EDGAR WRIGHT One must be truthful with oneself about one's own motives, especially
if one is to survive in the wo...
ALAIN One must be truthful with oneself about one's own motives, especially if one is to survive in the wo...
ALAIN FRENCH If you want to be a writer, then write.
I. MARLENE KING If a man is a writer, everybody tiptoes around past the locked door of the breadwinner. But if you...
BARBARA W. TUCHMAN It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.
JAMES A. MICHENER Creative non-fiction is such a liberating genre because it allows the non-fiction writer, whether he...
LEE GUTKIND Fiction's about what it is to be a human being.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE It is a lie.
ARTHUR MILLER Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a na...
MAYA ANGELOU Sometimes you can write about a character's day in under a minute and sometimes it takes a day just ...
JENNIFER V. CLANCY Whether you do stand-up comedy or write a story, you have a duty to deliver. As a comedian, you walk...
MARK BILLINGHAM I'm a writer, so whatever gymnastics jump through my head, I write about it.
EARL KING I have to tell you, I'll be right up front about it: I'm the governor of the state of Connec...
DANNEL MALLOY When I first began to write fiction, I didn't think I was a comic writer; I thought I was a seri...
ANTHONY BURGESS Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write.
J. B. PRIESTLEY You cannot be a good writer of serious fiction if you are not depressed
KURT VONNEGUT JR. 'Filk' is the folk music of the science fiction and fantasy community - you get parodies, yo...
SEANAN MCGUIRE When you write about what you dream, you become a writer.
When you dream about what you w...
A. SALEH If I'd learned nothing else, it was this: If you want to be a great writer, be a man. If you can...
JULIANNA BAGGOTT Well it kind of is project to project because as a writer I think you always write to some degree ab...
CAMERON CROWE I feel like some sort of fiction-writing hobo, jumping trains and always hoping I'll find a good...
RAINBOW ROWELL Climate change is a controversial subject, right? People will debate whether there is climate change...
ANDREW CUOMO I have an imagination that will go in any direction it is prodded. I pride myself on being able to b...
DAVID SELTZER I don't know about other writers, but for myself, to write I must be relatively quiet - it's...
RAY CHARLES Obviously, 'Homeland' is not just a spy thriller. It's more than that, but 'Tyrant...
ADAM RAYNER There's a big difference between us. I write non-fiction, you write fiction. I write truths that tel...
RICHARD PAUL EVANS Being tall has a major impact in general. It takes some courage to be as big as you are - to live up...
SIGOURNEY WEAVER It takes courage to become what really you are & what you are destined to be.
DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA I'll be honest with you: politically, I have no issue with people, but my beef sometimes is with...
DARON MALAKIAN I think I'm an American writer writing about Latin America, and I'm a Latin American writer ...
DANIEL ALARCON Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.
JOHN LE CARRE The one thing I learned the most about acting is it takes a tremendous amount of courage to go there...
CARSON DALY Sometimes I'll write without the guitar or the piano, but most of the time I'll be playing a...
JOHN DARNIELLE Successful fiction does not need to be validated by 'real life'; I cringe whenever a writer ...
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE I'm a fiction writer, and fiction is telling the lives of unreal people. But the only way you ca...
ROBERT J. SAWYER For some reason, I seem to be bothered whenever I see acts of injustice and assaults on people's...
IRIS CHANG Saying you have a political solution is like saying you can write a pop song that's going to sta...
BRUCE STERLING Courage does not take over, it fights and struggles through every word you say and every step you ta...
CECELIA AHERN Anyone can support a team that is winning - it takes no courage. But to stand behind a team to defen...
BART STARR Fiction is nothing but non-fiction couched to conceal the identity of the writer.
TAPAN GHOSH A president, like a college freshman, can't know in advance which questions he'll have to an...
WALTER KIRN No matter where you stand politically - even if you're unsure of what your political ideology is...
BRAD HENRY I have always distrusted memoir. I tend to write my memoirs through my fiction. It's easier to get t...
ARMISTEAD MAUPIN It would be normal for anybody running a high-profile, politically controversial operation in China ...
REBECCA MACKINNON "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and liste...
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
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"I know. But I think that's actually th...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER restraint equals indulgence
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER That means you're my kid," I explained, "and I'm your mother, and nobody can say it isn't so.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER I had decided early on that if I couldn’t dress elegant, I’d dress memorable.
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BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't just some fine destination but the road you're on and the fact you know h...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Perhaps growing up meant we put our knives away and feigned ignorance of the damage.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physi...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER You can’t replace people you love with other people…But you can trust that you’re not going to...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhe...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Insomnia’s different,” I said. It was hard to explain this to people. “You know the light that...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sometimes I still have American dreams. I mean literally. I see microwave ovens and exercise machine...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER To people who think of themselves as God's houseguests, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyon...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't expect to see perfection before I die. Lord, if I did I would have stuck my head in the oven...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER But children robbed of love will dwell on magic.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER You're thinking of revolution as a great all-or-nothing. I think of it as one more morning in a mugg...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I thought: this is how life is, ridiculous beyond comprehension.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I've about decided that's the main thing that separates happy people from the other people: the feel...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I live...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Your dreams, what you hope for and all that, it's not separate from your life. It grows right up out...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Emelina and I took each other in. All morning I'd felt the strange disjuncture that comes from recon...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from th...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER She kept swimming out into life because she hadn't yet found a rock to stand on.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER He warned Mother not to flout God's Will by expecting too much of us. "Sending a girl to college is ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER ....mountains. They stand at every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday ...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER But I'll tell you a secret. When I want to take God at his word exactly I take a peep out the window...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER When you're given a brilliant child you polish her and let her shine.
Pigs in Heaven
BARBARA KINGSOLVER As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer's long hair in water. I kne...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to inv...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick t...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER When I sit down to write, I consider myself an artist.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I know I'm a rare person, a trained scientist who writes fiction, because so few contemporary no...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Most every book I bring into the world is like birthing a baby; it's a lot of effort!
BARBARA KINGSOLVER After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were mis...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to unde...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER At home, growing up, we weren't really poor. We had everything we needed, we just didn't hav...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER I suppose that is my central obsession. What we owe to society, what we owe to ourselves.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER Being a novelist and being a mother have exactly coincided in my life: the call from my agent saying...
BARBARA KINGSOLVER