Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark. -Agnes De Mille
Art is reaching out into the ugliness of the world for vagrant beauty and the imprisoning of it in a tangible dream. -George Jean Nathan
Not can come out of an artist that is not in the man. -H. L. Mencken
Modern paintings are like women. You’ll never enjoy them if you try to understand them. -Harold Coffin
I paint the women slimmer than they are and their jewels fatter. -Cornelius van Dongen
Being present at your own exhibit is like being called out of rank during an Army physical inspection. It’s embarrassing. -Ludwig Bemelman
Most of them [sopranos] sound like they live on seaweed. -Sir Thomas Beechman
Tenors are noble, pure and heroic and get the soprano, if she has not tragically expired before the final curtain. But baritones are born villians in opera. Always the heavy and never the hero–that’s me. -Leonard Warren
Competitions are for horses, not artists. -Bela Bartok
All you have to do to write music is to remember a tune that’s never been written. -Deems Taylor
If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice. -Benny Goodman
A good book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. -William Styron
Years ago, to say you were a writer was not the highest recommendation to your landlord. Today, he at least hesitates before he refuses to rent you the apartment –for all he knows you may be rich. -Arthur Miller
Why do people always expect authors to have answers? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers, I’d be a politician. -Eugene Ionesco
Pretty women swarm around everybody but writers. Plain, intelligent women somewhat swarm around writers. -William Saroyan
You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. -John Ciardi
It took me 15 years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous. -Robert Benchley
In the theatre, a hero is one who believes that all women are ladies. A villain is one who believes that all ladies are women. -George Jean Nathan
Playing Shakespeare is so tiring. You never get a chance to sit down unless you’re a king. -Josephine Hull
The person who does not get the least bit nervous at the prospect of stepping on a stage will never move an audience to wild ecstasy. -Amelita Galli-Curci
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach. -Alfred Hitchcock
It is not true that I said actors are cattle. I said they should be treated like cattle. -Alfred Hitchcock
Hollywood shoots too many pictures and not enough actors. -Walter Winchel
You can learen a lot about romance at the movies –if you don’t let the picture distract you. -Franklin P. Jones
A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well-known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being seen. -Fred Allen
[My wife] told me one of the sweetest things one could hear –“I am not jealous. But I am truly sad for all the actresses who embrace you and kiss you while acting, for with them, you are only pretending.” -Joseph Cotten
Perhaps they were right in putting love into books...perhaps it could not live anywhere else. –William Faulkner
There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. -Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith
The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. -Anaïs Nin
And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. -Sylvia Plath
I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top. -English Professor (Name Unknown), Ohio University
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. -Baltasar Gracián
Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. -Sholem Asch
Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will. -Goetvvhe
A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order. -Jean Luc Godard
Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. -Gene Fowler
Do not put statements in the negative form.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. -Mark Twain
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
-William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing"
