THE QUOTATIONS

10 Great Writers, 10 Great Quotes About Writing

A.J. Liebling on New York City’s Neutral Corner Cocktail Lounge

Aaron Swartz on Controlling the Means of Information in the Digital Age

Abraham Lincoln on The Importance of Following Your Passion

Alan Greenspan on Eliminating Too Big to Fail

Alex Honnold on Scaling the Wall

Alfred Hitchcock on The Essential Difference Between Mystery and Suspense

Andre Aciman on New York City

Andrew Ross Sorkin on Financial Risk and Recovery

Barack Obama on The Affordable Care Act

Bill Clinton on Future Preference

Bill Clinton on The Four Elements That Determine Every Presidency

Bob Dylan on Teenage Rebellion

Bob Dylan on The Critical Aspect of Exuding Confidence

Brendan Behan on Human Kindness

Bret Easton Ellis on Being a ‘Serious’ Novelist

Brian Eno on Perfection

Bruce Lee on Unnatural Naturalness

Bruce Springsteen on Barack Obama

Charles Bukowski on The Saving Grace of Writing

Charles Dickens on Daily Living in a Small, Blue-Collar Town

Charlie Kaufman on The Importance of Being Yourself 

Charlie LeDuff on The Bankruptcy of Detroit

Chief Sitting Bull on The One Percent

Christopher McDougall on Distance-Running

Christopher Nolan on Superheroes Vs. Batman

Cory Booker on Embracing Your Frustration

Cus D’Amato on Maintaining a Prevailing Sense of Calm

Dan Wakefield on Kurt Vonnegut

Daniel Kitson on Wide-Screen Metaphors

Dave Eggers on Working In The Dead of Night

David Chase’s Advice for Aspiring Screenwriters

David Fincher on Passion

David Foster Wallace on The Nature of The Fun

David Gunn on Curbing Subway Graffiti in New York City

David Lynch on The Unified Field

David Shenk on The Infinite Possibilities of Chess

David Simon on Marxism Vs. Capitalism

David Simon on The Two Great Currencies of Television

Deb Olin Unferth on Loneliness

Derek Cianfrance on Ideas vs. Execution

Don DeLillo on Office Politics

Ernest Hemingway on Bravery 

Ernest Hemingway on Holding Out For Spring

F. Scott Fitzgerald on The Lost City

F.X. Feeney on Woody Allen

Floyd Patterson on Losing

Fran Lebowitz on Becoming a Real Writer

Francis Ford Coppola’s Advice to Young Filmmakers

Frank O’Hara on Daily Life in New York City

Frank Zappa on Organized Religion

Friedrich Nietzsche on The Definition of a Philosopher

George Saunders on America

George Plimpton on The Difference Between Professional Sports and Orchestral Synchronicity

Georgia O’Keefe on You

Greil Marcus on The Desperation of Road Movies

Harmony Korine on Provoking a Reaction

Harmony Korine’s Advice to Aspiring Writers

Haruki Murakami on Knowing When to Quit

Haruki Murakami on Solitude

Henry Miller on Writing About the Immoral

Hilton Als on Memory, Misremembered

Howard Stern on The Fear of Success

Hunter S. Thompson on Rolling Stone Magazine

Ingmar Bergman on Isolation

Ingmar Bergman on the Life & Death of Great Art

Ira Glass on Being a Beginner

Ira Glass’s Advice for Aspiring Writers

J.D. Salinger on Reciprocity

Jack Kerouac on ‘First Thought, Best Thought’

Jack Kerouac on Self-Loathing

James Agee on Clothing

James Agee on Home

James Toback on Movie Vs. Documentary

Jane Jacobs on The Four Rules of Neighborhood Planning

Jeffrey Eugenides on What Compels People to Start Writing

Jesmyn Ward on Negative Self-Image

Jiro Ono on Developing a Palate

Joan Didion on Living In The World

Joan Didion on The San Bernardino Valley

Joel Meyerowitz on Ephemeral Connections

John Cassavetes on Why The Hollywood System Sucks

John Cheever on The Old New York

John Lennon on Democracy

Jonathan Lethem on Proximity People

Joyce Carol Oates on Boxing & Pornography

Joyce Carol Oates on The Transcendent Aspect of Writing

Junot Diaz on The Fatal Risk of Forcing It

Ken Burns on Positive Manipulation in Storytelling

Ken Kesey on Exploring the Wilderness

Kurt Vonnegut on Censorship

Laird Hamilton on Civil Disobedience

Lao Tzu’s “Soul Food”

Lena Dunham on Becoming a Young Independent Filmmaker

Lenny Bruce on The Essence of Satire

Lorne Michaels on The Importance of Having Boundaries

Lou Reed on Rewriting

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on Expansion of The Conscious Mind

Margaret Atwood on Expository Fiction

Marina Abramovic on Self-Actualization

Mario Puzo on Retrospective Falsification

Marlon Brando on Success & Failure 

Martin Scorsese on Spirituality In The Cinema

Mary Gaitskill on Style

Mia Farrow on Human Compassion in Darfur

Mia Farrow on Losing

Michael Chabon on The Midnight Disease

Neil Young on Fulfillment

Nic Pizzolatto on The Metaphysical in True Detective

Nick Cave on The Power of Ideas

Norman Mailer on Los Angeles

Norman Mailer on Sex

P.T. Barnum on Perseverance

Pablo Picasso on Painting

Pat Conroy on Writing

Patti Smith on Joy & Suffering

Paul Thomas Anderson on Dropping Out of Film School

Paul Thomas Anderson on Megalomania vs. Control

Pauline Kael on the Lackluster Quality of Movies

Pauline Kael on Fear of Movies

Peggy Noonan on The Failure of Journalism

Pete Dexter on Leaner Times 

Pete Townshend on ‘Positive Assistance Vibration’

Philip Roth on Reader Versus Book

Quentin Tarantino on The Writing Process

Rabbi Dov Ber on The 7 Things You Can Learn From a Thief

Raymond Carver on Dishonest Writing

Richard Avedon on The Importance of Tapping Your Fears 

Richard Dawkins on Getting Something from Nothing

Roger Ebert on Writing from Memory

Sheryl Sandberg on Gender Inequality

Stanley Kubrick on Photography & Problem-Solving

Stephen King on The Importance of Writing Every Day

Steve Jobs on The Bane of All Great Companies

Steve Jobs on The Real-Life Application of Video Games

Steve Wozniak on Working Alone

Steven Soderbergh on The Primary Difference Between Movies & Cinema

Steven Spielberg on The Motion Picture Industry

Susan Sontag on ‘Southerners’

Terrence Malick on ‘Days of Heavens’

Tina Fey on Gender Bias In The Workplace

Tom Waits on Commercial Licensing of Songs

Tony Kushner on Writing Under Panic

Truman Capote on Being ‘Subnormal’

Vince Gilligan on The Primary Difference Between Movies & TV

Vince Gilligan on Writing About The Constants

Walt Disney on Disneyland

William Styron on Melancholia

Woody Allen’s Advice For Aspiring Filmmakers