Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.


Colette

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can...
COLETTE
The writer knows his own worth, and to be overvalued can confuse and destroy him as an artist.
CHARLES R. JACKSON
I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES
And, after all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work, for an author can ...
ISAAC D'ISRAELI
I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, I wil...
ROBERTSON DAVIES
After all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work, for an author can have n...
ISAAC D'ISRAELI
After all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work, for an author can have n...
ISAAC DISRAELI
No one's policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head ...
TERRY PRATCHETT
You’ve thrown down the gauntlet. You’ve brought my wrath down upon your house. Now, to prove tha...
CHUCK PALAHNIUK
I was one of those guys he'd sit down with and put his arm around. We talked.... Until you messed up...
BOBBY MEACHAM
It may have been a dying mill town, but everything goes down. And then there's only one way to go, a...
SUSAN CASEY
I don't see a huge talent difference between one age group or another. It all comes down to who has ...
KAAVYA VISWANATHAN
If you just keep your head down, work, and put it on the bottom line, sooner or later that takes car...
WAYNE HUIZENGA
Remember that the bad days are not forever, and the trouble which seems so terrible at last.
GEORGE ORWELL
To stand on the
brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli...
ASK AND IT IS GIVEN
Life is like a seesaw you can be up hi one minute then before you know it you can be down low the ne...
GARY F EVANS...
Who am I? I'm just a writer. I write things down. I walk through your dreams and invent the future. ...
RICHARD SIKEN
Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that's where the courage of a leader com...
DESMOND TUTU
I know I'm a little guy, and I can put down quite a bit, too. So, you just have to kind of watch peo...
JASON TURNER
Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up.
ANN BRADFORD
A diplomat these days is nothing, but a head waiter who is allowed to sit down occasionally.
PETER USTINOV
Always rise from the table with an appetite, and you will never sit down without one.
WILLIAM PENN
Always rise from the table with an appetite, and you will never sit down without one.
HORACE GREELEY
To destroy that which seeks to destroy me, God invites me to stand against it until it stands down a...
CRAIG D. LOUNSBROUGH
A diplomat these days in nothing, but a head waiter who is allowed to sit down occasionally.
PETER USTINOV
I'd try to stuff myself into one of these scenarios, but it's like wearing a size five sneaker when ...
JODI PICOULT
Everything that goes up must come down. But there comes a time when not everything that's down can c...
GEORGE BURNS
The idea that an author can extricate her or his own ongoing life experience from the tale being wri...
STEVEN ERIKSON
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
I've learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a f...
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN
I've learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a f...
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN
Put your head down and work as hard as you can because there is always someone better out there.
BRIAN MCBRIDE
That's the most terrible thing about being an author - standing there at your mother's funer...
TERRY PRATCHETT
A funny person is funny only for so long, but a wit can sit down and go on being spellbinding foreve...
DIANA VREELAND
A writer who has perfect writing skills and zero honesty is not an author but a sales person.
SANDRA CHAMI KASSIS
First you destroy those who create values. Then you destroy those who know what the values are, and ...
RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI
The way you write a screenplay is that you close your eyes and run the movie in your head and then y...
SALMAN RUSHDIE
You can decide to ignore the naysayers, put your head down and work on becoming the best you can.
EDDIE DE JONG
Too put a dollar down and bet a man his worth, don't confuse his eagerness with envy, he is simply c...
THOMAS WALLACE SCHERZER
If you really want to make it easy on yourself, put a calendar, pens and pencils, stamps and envelop...
CATHERINE WILLIAMS
I'm a light sleeper. I've never been one of those people who can put their head down and sud...
FLORENCE WELCH
One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.
ELIZABETH I
If you think I give a rat’s ass about that cooler, you don’t know me at all. Nothing I own is wo...
DEBRA ANASTASIA
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pa...
BIBLE
Don’t be timid. You’re a writer, use your role, test it, make something of it. These are decisiv...
ELENA FERRANTE
Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead.
LES BROWN
If it comes down to a choice between being unloved and being vulnerable and sensitive and emotional,...
CHUCK PALAHNIUK
I love players like Thurston Moore. I mean, you can put notes down on a sheet of paper, and if you p...
FRANK IERO
An accountant is a man who watches the battle from the safety of the hills and then comes down to ba...
IRVING R. KAUFMAN
Louis's own life can be broken down into two distinct phases: everything that occurred before he rec...
LAURENCE BERGREEN
He's a great specimen of his own breed as a bull terrier. He's got, probably, the perfect head you'l...
DAVID FREI
One of the ironies of being a professional writer is that, if you are even moderately successful, th...
JANE LINDSKOLD
We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there; le...
MARK TWAIN
We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there lest w...
MARK TWAIN
We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it / and stop there; les...
MARK TWAIN
You can't sit down in a bachelor's house without getting sick with cooties from the dirt and built-u...
DEB BAKER
Reading the Bible will help you get to know the word, but it’s when you put it down and live your ...
STEVE MARABOLI
Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when he gets down to the real busine...
ISAAC ASIMOV
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pr...
RICHARD M. NIXON
But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget. You take your material where you find it, ...
TIM O'BRIEN
But then she snapped your neck.”
Tears rolled down his face.
“And I felt you die,” ...
SARAH J. MAAS
The time for reminiscing is after rugby. Then you can sit down and get fat.
JOSH LEWSEY
If you want to fight a war on drugs, sit down at your own kitchen table and talk to your own childre...
BARRY MCCAFFREY
Most people who sit down and look closely at their expenditures can find a lot of things that they d...
BROOKS TUCKER
Be one of the crowd? It went against everything a wizard stood for, and a wizard would not stand for...
TERRY PRATCHETT
I'm not straight up and down. I have curves.
ERIKA CHRISTENSEN
But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.
BIBLE
People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate i...
ELIZABETH GILBERT
One of the strangest things that used to happen at half time was that you'd come in, and you wou...
DAVID SEAMAN
Take a chance of your life, you're risking nothing in this planet.
NAZIM AMBALATH
When you have a chain around your neck, you have to keep your head down and try to accept your fate ...
INGRID BETANCOURT
It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's v...
HARRY S. TRUMAN
When it comes down to that moment, when it's me against you, you know in your head whether you w...
J. J. WATT
The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving ...
JULES RENARD
The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving ...
JULES RENARD
Spencer Tracy was a man who did very much what I do on a set, and that is, he comes down and he does...
WILLIAM SHATNER
If thou rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.
WILLIAM PENN
I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can't sit down a...
TOM PETTY
Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the societ...
EDWARD ABBEY
This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its don...
NEIL GAIMAN
But this I know; the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always...
CHARLOTTE BRONTë
The truly free man is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.
JULES RENARD
People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate...
ELIZABETH GILBERT
Can you lay your life down, so a stranger can live? Can you take what you need, but take less than y...
BRYAN ADAMS
Conditions were tough. And when they're tough, it comes down to willpower ? who wants it most ? and ...
BART SCHOUTEN
That way if an avalanche comes down and one person gets buried, everyone else can look for them.
NICK LOGAN
It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's vi...
HARRY S TRUMAN
He's a little laid back and he's not one to yell and scream. If you make a mistake, he won't rip you...
CURTIS PAINTER
It comes down to who can throw strikes and get guys out.
LARRY WAYMAN
When you find a writer who really is saying something to you, read everything that writer has writte...
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
We adjusted defensively, but it comes down to blocking and tackling, and when he got a full head of ...
RIEF GILG
Why, 'a stalks up and down like a peacock--a stride and a stand; ruminates like an hostess that hat...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
It is so hard to learn to put sadness in perspective so hard to understand that it is a feeling that...
ELIZABETH WURTZEL
Why do you want to become an author? I will accept only one answer. If it is because you feel you ca...
NGAIO MARSH
Poor is the man who does not know his own intrinsic worth and tends to measure everything by relativ...
SIDNEY MADWED
Poor is the man who does not know his own intrinsic worth and tends to measure everything by relativ...
SYDNEY MADWED
My joy as a writer is circling around and around and down and down to find out who the real person i...
JILL MCCORKLE
It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one...
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

More Colette

Time spent with a cat is never wasted.
COLETTE
It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then...
COLETTE
Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
COLETTE
What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
COLETTE
It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.
COLETTE
It's nothing to be born ugly. Sensibly, the ugly woman comes to terms with her ugliness and exploits...
COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. -Colette.
COLETTE
There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a ...
COLETTE
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
COLETTE
Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.
COLETTE
It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a ...
COLETTE
The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.
COLETTE
I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have ...
COLETTE
We only do well the things we like doing.
COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
COLETTE
There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom,...
COLETTE
Hope costs nothing.
COLETTE
A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
COLETTE
Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can...
COLETTE
In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly t...
COLETTE
There are no ordinary cats.
COLETTE
look for a long time at what pleases you, and longer still at what pains you...
COLETTE
If he's getting married, he's not longer interesting.
COLETTE
I did not look for her, because I was afraid of dispelling the mystery we attach to people whom we k...
COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm!
COLETTE
The more sensitive the lunatic, the less able is he to resist this prying interest of the normal hum...
COLETTE
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
COLETTE
When she raises her eyelids, it's as if she were taking off all her clothes.
COLETTE
The writer who loses his self-doubt, who gives way as he grows old to a sudden euphoria, to prolixit...
COLETTE
It is the image in the mind that links us to our lost treasures; but it is the loss that shapes the ...
COLETTE
I went to collect the few personal belongings which...I held to be invaluable: my cat, my resolve to...
COLETTE
Once a man is on hand, a woman tends to stop believing in her own beliefs.
COLETTE DOWLING
Relationships are like a dance, with visible energy racing back and forth between partners. Some rel...
COLETTE DOWLING
No letters after your name are ever going to be a total guarantee of competence any more than they a...
COLETTE BOWE
No letters after your name are ever going to be a total guarantee of competence any more than they ...
COLETTE BOWE
Relationships are like a dance, with visible energy racing back and forth between partners. Some rel...
COLETTE DOWLING
At the halfway point in the season what we're looking for is making ourselves better and better with...
COLETTE QUAM
They also learn through songs, rhymes, and lots of literature. We read many books and introduce kids...
COLETTE JENSON
We are studying ways to challenge the government decision to freeze tariffs.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
With the upcoming Beijing Olympics and the re-emergence of Shanghai as a great city of the world, de...
COLETTE GARNSEY
One needs a referee on the value.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
Those who make a difference... Know they must be different!
COLETTE DEGRAFF
Fear (...) that has no relation to capabilities or even to reality is epidemic among women today. Fe...
COLETTE DOWLING
I assume he is going to try and convince me not to cast my vote.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
COLETTE QUAM
Watertown is an experienced team, but we were pretty disappointed with the 9-0 score. The 9-0 dual s...
COLETTE QUAM
Ashley had two really big wins to close out the tournament strong. Her play was definitely the highl...
COLETTE QUAM
It was every bit of those 40 mile-per-hour winds and it was hot. The heat had begun to take its toll...
COLETTE QUAM
I cannot accept that the assets of a company can be put beyond the control of its managers.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
I have been contacted by shareholders -- French and foreign ... who are worried that some decisions ...
COLETTE NEUVILLE
It's always nice when we get younger siblings of students we already have.
COLETTE JENSON
They have been very accommodating over the past six years. They give us tons of space and access to ...
COLETTE JENSON
We never set out to make a dinner theater.
COLETTE HILL
It's important the guests eat dinner and enjoy each other's company.
COLETTE HILL
It's a disaster. I've lived all over Canada and it's the worst ice storm I've ever seen.
COLETTE FONTAINE
Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
What a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised!
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trad...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Girls usually have a paper mâché face on their wedding day.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I n...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent do...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
But just as delicate fare does not stop you from craving for saveloys, so tried and exquisite friend...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The writer who loses his self-doubt, who gives way as he grows old to a sudden euphoria, to prolixit...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
You do not notice changes in what is always before you.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds. One of them tempts us --a...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
There is no need to waste pity on young girls who are having their moments of disillusionment, for i...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Among all the modernized aspects of the most luxurious of industries, the model, a vestige of volupt...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
January, month of empty pockets! Let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer's f...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Is suffering so very serious? I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignifi...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarett...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Can it be that chance has made me one of those women so immersed in one man that, whether they are b...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It's nothing to be born ugly. Sensibly, the ugly woman comes to terms with her ugliness and exploits...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Shall we never have done with that cliche, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut Animals up, alive, into small piec...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even onc...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Is suffering so very serious? I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignifi...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
January, month of empty pockets! let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer'...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
I am going away with him to an unknown country where I shall have no past and no name, and where I s...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Dr. Gunther talked about passing the baton to others and that is what we are doing. We hope we have ...
COLETTE JENKINS PARKER
I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we cal...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly t...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
A woman who thinks she is intelligent demands the same rights as man. An intelligent woman gives up.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut [Animals] up, alive, into small pi...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The day after that wedding night I found that a distance of a thousand miles, abyss and discovery an...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Writing only leads to more writing.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
We have thoughts of designing a curriculum for the schools here that includes the history of the civ...
COLETTE JENKINS PARKER
After looking at the big picture, we've decided it has run its course.
COLETTE JENKINS PARKER