a writer of a book, article, or document (subclass : literary works: writer [Q36180]) From Wikiquote, the free quote compendium
Authors are persons who originate or give existence to anything, said authorship determining responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.
Writers collect things. We read magazines, we ride buses and eavesdrop on other people's conversations, we stop and read posters on telephone poles, we examine soup cans and old clothing stores and babies and pets and sewer covers and weather reports. We delve into ancient history, old gossip, rumors, hints of rumors, maps, brochures, irrelevant details, bad advice, good omens, lucky stars, and things that are nobody's business. In short, we are called to be witnesses. Things may happen, but unless someone takes note of it, it might not matter.
Kathleen Alcalá "The Madonna in Cyberspace" (2000) in The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing (2007)
“But you really are, you know.” This was said with intense earnestness. “I mean good, really good. I think it is wonderful to be an author like you. It must be almost like being God.” Graham stared blankly. “Not to editors, sister.” Sister didn’t get the whisper. She continued, “To be able to create living characters out of nothing; to unfold souls to all the world; to put thoughts into words; to build pictures and create worlds. I have often thought that an author was the most gloriously gifted person in all creation. Better an inspired author starving in a garret than a king upon his throne. Don’t you think so?” “Definitely,” lied Graham.
Isaac Asimov, Author! Author! (1964; originally published in The Unknown Five)
Write to the mind and heart, and let the ear Glean after what it can.'TV.
But every fool describes, in these bright days, His wondrous journey to some foreign court, And spawns his quarto, and demands your praise,— Death to his publisher, to him 'tis sport.
I like the idea of a literary patchwork, novel by novel, poem by poem, by different writers, mapping out an era, 'a continent' more and more thoroughly. No one writer can do it.
1979 interview included in Conversations with Nadine Gordimer edited by Nancy Topping Bazin and Marilyn Dallman Seymour (1990)
There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized. Or even cured.
But I did not explain to you the other insidious aspect of writing. There is no way to stop. Writers go on writing long after it becomes financially unnecessary...because it hurts less to write than it does not to write.
There are two things which I am confident I can do very well; one is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner.
Later on in life you will learn that writers are merely open, helpless texts with no real understanding of what they have written and therefore must half-believe anything and everything that is said of them. You, however, have not yet reached this stage of literary criticism.
{{w:Lonnie Moore}}, "How to Become a Writer" (1982).
It is the rust we value, not the gold; Authors, like coins, grow dear, as they grow old.
Alexander Pope, Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace, Second Book of Horace, Epigram I, line 35.
I would not be like those Authors, who forgive themselves some particular lines for the sake of a whole Poem, and vice versa a whole Poem for the sake of some particular lines. I believe no one qualification is so likely to make a good writer, as the power of rejecting his own thoughts.
Alexander Pope, The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, preface (1717).
"Tis hard to say if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill; But, of the two less dang'rous is th' offence To tire our patience than mislead our sense.
I hold to my old romantic belief that writers of all times and places belong to a noble fellowship; that although they are the voices of their own cultures and languages, they transcend these boundaries.
Chava Rosenfarb "A Yiddish Writer Reflects on Translation" (2005) in "Confessions of a Yiddish Writer and Other Essays" (2019) translated from the Yiddish with Goldie Morgentaler
what is writing if not a form of confession in disguise? No matter what the subject, all literary roads lead back to the self. The writer descends like a miner into the deepest shafts of her soul in order to unearth the blackest coals of her torment, or to retrieve the most glittering diamonds of her memories, and bring them back to the surface in the form of fictions that she wishes to share with the world.
Chava Rosenfarb "Confessions of a Yiddish Writer" (1973) in "Confessions of a Yiddish Writer and Other Essays" (2019) translated from the Yiddish with Goldie Morgentaler
In an age when many people lived on less than two dollars a day, his income rose to as much as a hundred thousand dollars a year. He was the highest paid writer in America, and it was widely reported that his magazine contributions could earn a dollar a word. In fact, his last contract with Harper & Brothers guaranteed him only a third of that, but it was still a better deal than anyone else could have expected, and he always insisted on a strict word count from his editors, even going so far as to demand that hyphenated words be counted as two. Legend has it that when an admirer enclosed a dollar with a request for his autograph, he replied not with his signature but with the single word "Thanks," in accordance with his rumored rate.
Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic.
Ideas are free. But while the author confines them to his study, they are like birds in a cage, which none but he can have a right to let fly: for till he thinks proper to emancipate them, they are under his own dominion.
Joseph Yates, J., dissenting, 4 Burr. Part IV., p. 2,379; Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 17.
The invention of an author is a species of property unknown to the common law of England. Its usages are immemorial; and the views of it tend to the benefit and advantage of the public with respect to the necessaries of life, and not to the improvement and graces of mind.
Joseph Yates, J., dissenting, 4 Burr. Part IV., p. 2,387; Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 107.
Some write, confin'd by physic; some, by debt; Some, for 'tis Sunday; some, because 'tis wet; Another writes because his father writ, And proves himself a bastard by his wit.
Edward Young, Epistles to Mr. Pope (1830), Epistle I, line 75.
An author! 'tis a venerable name! How few deserve it, and what numbers claim! Unbless'd with sense above their peers refined, Who shall stand up dictators to mankind? Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause? That sole proprietor of just applause.
Edward Young, Epistles to Mr. Pope (1830), Epistle II. From Oxford, line 15.
For who can write so fast as men run mad?
Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire I, line 286.
Some future strain, in which the muse shall tell How science dwindles, and how volumes swell. How commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the sun.
Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire VH, line 95.
And then, exulting in their taper, cry, "Behold the Sun;" and, Indian-like, adore.
Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night II.
Quotes reported in the famous copyright case Millar v Taylor (1769), 4 Burr. 2303, 98 ER 201; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904).
It is certainly not agreeable to natural justice that a stranger should reap the beneficial pecuniary produce of another man's work.
Willes, J., concurring, 4 Burr. Part IV., p. 2,334, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 17.
A writer's fame will not be the less, that he has bread, without being under the necessity of prostituting his pen to flattery or party, to get it.
Willes, J., concurring, 4 Burr. Part IV., p. 2,335; Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 162.
He who engages in a laborious work (such, for instance, as Johnson's Dictionary) which may employ his whole life, will do it with more spirit if, besides his own Glory, he thinks it may be a provision for his family.
Willes, J., concurring, 4 Burr. Part IV., p. 2,335; Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 163.
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)
The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.
Indeed, unless a man can link his written thoughts with the everlasting wants of men, so that they shall draw from them as from wells, there is no more immortality to the thoughts and feelings of the soul than to the muscles and the bones.
A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably.
La Bruyère, The Characters or Manners of the Present Age. Ch. I.
A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent at Writing, but he wants fifty Guineas.
La Bruyère, The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (1688), Chapter XV.
And so I penned It down, until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.
John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. Apology for his Book.
Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind.
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France.
The book that he has made renders its author this service in return, that so long as the book survives, its author remains immortal and cannot die.
Richard de Bury, Philobiblon, Chapter I. 21. E. C. Thomas' translation.
Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength, And ponder well your subject, and its length; Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear.
Habits of close attention, thinking heads, Become more rare as dissipation spreads, Till authors hear at length one general cry Tickle and entertain us, or we die!
So that the jest is clearly to be seen, Not in the words— but in the gap between; Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.
Oh! rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.
George Crabbe, The Parish Register, Part I. Introduction.
The men, who labour and digest things most, Will be much apter to despond than boast; For if your author be profoundly good, 'Twill cost you dear before he's understood.
The unhappy man, who once has trail'd a pen, Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.
Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother; Wits are gamecocks to one another.
John Gay, The Elephant and the Bookseller, line 74.
The most original modern authors are not so because they advance what is new, but simply because they know how to put what they have to say, as if it had never been said before.
His [Burke's] imperial fancy has laid all nature under tribute, and has collected riches from every scene of the creation and every walk of art.
Robert Hall, Apology for the Freedom of the Press, Section IV.
Whatever an author puts between the two covers of his book is public property; whatever of himself he does not put there is his private property, as much as if he had never written a word.
Gail Hamilton, Country Living and Country Thinking, Preface.
But every little busy scribbler now Swells with the praises which he gives himself; And, taking sanctuary in the crowd, Brags of his impudence, and scorns to mend.
Horace, Of the Art of Poetry. 475. Wentworth Dillon's translation.
Deferar in vicum vendentem thus et odores, Et piper, et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis.
I (i.e. my writings) shall be consigned to that part of the town where they sell incense, and scents, and pepper, and whatever is wrapped up in worthless paper.
Each change of many-coloured life he drew, Exhausted worlds and then imagined new* Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
Samuel Johnson, Prologue on the Opening of the Drury Lane Theatre.
The chief' glory of every people arises from its authors.
Whatever hath been written shall remain, Nor be erased nor written o'er again; The unwritten only still belongs to thee* Take heed, and ponder well what that shall be.
You do not publish your own verses, Laelius; you criticise mine. Pray cease to criticise mine, or else publish your own.
Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book I, Epigram 91.
Jack writes severe lampoons on me, 'tis said—But he writes nothing, who is never read.
Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book IH, Epigram 9.
He who writes distichs, wishes, I suppose, to please by brevity. But, tell me, of what avail is their brevity, when there is a whole book full of them?
Why did I write? what sin to me unknown Dipt me in ink, my parents', or my own? As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came.
E'en copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, The last and greatest art—the art to blot.
Alexander Pope, Second Book of Horace, Epistle I. L.280.
Whether the darken'd room to muse invite, Or whiten'd wall provoke the skew'r to write; In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint, Like Lee or Budgel I will rhyme and print.
Alexander Pope, Second Book of Horace, Satire I, line 97.
Let him be kept from paper, pen, and ink; So may he cease to write, and learn to think.
Matthew Prior, To a Person who Wrote III. On Same Person.
'Tis not how well an author says, But 'tis how much, that gathers praise.
Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
John Sheffield (Duke of Buckingham), Essay on Poetry.
Look in thy heart and write.
Sir Philip Sidney, William Gray's Life of Sir Philip Sidney.
The great and good do not die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.
Ah, ye knights of the pen! May honour be your shield, and truth tip your lances! Be gentle to all gentle people. Be modest to women. Be tender to children. And as for the Ogre Humbug, out sword, and have at him!