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Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies
Sol Stein
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”
“The novelist is like the conductor of an orchestra, his back to the audience, his face invisible, summoning the experience of music for the people he cannot see. The writer as conductor also gets to compose the music and play all of the instruments, a task less formidable than it seems.”
“Say it new or say it straight.”
“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”
“Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.”
“be sure you don’t stop the story while describing. You are a storyteller, not an interior decorator.”
“You can never know enough about your characters.”
“What I have never witnessed is a writer’s work succeeding notably in a field he doesn’t habitually read for pleasure.”
“We are all writers from an early age. Most of what we write is nonfiction—essays for school, letters to friends, memoranda to colleagues—in which we are trying to pass on information. We are raised with a traditional nonfiction mind-set. Even when we write love letters, we are trying to communicate how we feel and not necessarily trying to evoke an emotion in the recipient, though that might be better suited to our purpose.”
“Today’s readers can be roughly divided into two groups, those who accept the fantasy villains of childhood, as in the James Bond stories and Arnold Schwarzenegger films, and those who insist on credibility.”
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Book Keywords:
writing, art