Finishing It Quotes

What's the best part about writing a book?
Finishing it. ~ Rick Riordan

After college, I was living in New York and wrote furiously, a huge novel that I knew was a failure. I hoped that the book would work, but to be honest, I think I knew it would never work, even as I was finishing it. ~ Chang-rae Lee

What we got is NOW, Huck, and now is forever. Until it ain't. So, you can't worry over nothing except putting off the end a your story as long as you can, and finishing it with a bang. ~ Robert Coover

O my Bergson, you are a magician, and your book is a marvel, a real wonder in the history of philosophy ... In finishing it I found ... such a flavor of persistent euphony, as of a rich river that never foamed or ran thin, but steadily and firmly proceeded with its banks full to the brim. ~ William James

It is a comforting thing to know that the Lord will not begin the good work without also finishing it. ~ D.L. Moody

Sometimes you need to live with a painting for a while. Starting a painting can be easy, but finishing it ... that's the skill of the painter, how you finally know when it's done. ~ Elizabeth Neel

You have been abroad then?" said Henry, a little surprised.

"Oh! No, I only mean what I have read about. It always puts me in mind of the country that Emily and her father traveled through, in The Mysteries of Udolpho. But you never read novels, I dare say?"

"Why not?"

"Because they are not clever enough for you - gentlemen read better books."

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and most of them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again; I remember finishing it in two days - my hair standing on end the whole time."

"Yes," added Miss Tilney, "and I remember that you undertook to read it aloud to me, and that when I was called away for only five minutes to answer a note, instead of waiting for me, you took the volume into the Hermitage Walk, and I was obliged to stay till you had finished it. ~ Jane Austen

Last night. I couldn't put that book down. I was awake till four this morning finishing it. I didn't know reading could be like that, I had no idea. ~ Jill Mansell

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it. ~ Truman Capote

Sometimes, I'm brave.
Sometimes, I'm just stubbron. ~ Nigia Stephens

When I visit schools and talk to students about writing, I give them one word of advice and I give it to them quickly and loudly-FINISH! Starting something is easier than finishing it. You must have discipline to go from a few sentences, to a few paragraphs, to a piece of writing that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Finishing something bridges the difference between someone who has talent and one who does not. My best advice? Apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair-and finish. FINISH! ~ E.L. Konigsburg

Read a book without thinking about finishing it. Just read it. Enjoy every word, sentence, and paragraph. Don't wish for it to end, or for it to never end. ~ Matt Haig

Flannery revealed she had been working on the novel "a year and a half and will probably be two more years finishing it." She described her writing habits in a letter dated July 13: "I must tell you how I work. I don't have my novel outlined and I have to write to discover what I am doing. ~ Flannery O'Connor

When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it - a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand - as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there's a clash between the two, it's bad art. ~ Marc Chagall

I started seriously applying myself to writing fiction immediately after I finished graduate school. By 'seriously,' I mean that, instead of noodling along on a story, finishing it or not as the mood struck me, I set out to complete what I started, to polish it to the best of my ability, and to send out the finished story. ~ Jane Lindskold

I don't usually give out advice or recipes, but you must let the person looking at the photograph go some of the way to finishing it. You should offer them a seed that will grow and open up their minds. ~ Robert Doisneau

I started a novel right before 'The Imitation Game,' so it's funny now, four years later, to be coming almost back to finishing it. ~ Graham Moore

For me,the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches out-the writing down of it I always find hard.But I love finishing it,then holding the book in my hand and sharing my dream with my readers. ~ Michael Morpurgo

I would never quit on a book, even if it's awful. Once I start something, I believe in finishing it. The process of completing such a book will take me that much longer, but I wouldn't abandon it altogether. ("The IndieView," 2017) ~ Cat Ellington

[M]y first published book had just appeared in stores. The last year of my life
the year of finishing it, editing it, and seeing it through its various page-proof passes
ranks among the most unnerving of my young life. It has not felt good, or freeing. It has felt nerve-shreddingly disquieting. Publication simply allows one that much more to worry about. This cannot be said to aspiring writers often or sternly enough. Whatever they carry within themselves they believe publication cures will not, I can all but guarantee, be cured. You just wind up with new diseases. ~ Tom Bissell

It became clear that Keisha Blake could not start something without finishing it. If she climbed onto the boundary wall of Caldwell, she was compelled to walk the entire wall, no matter the obstructions in her path (beer cans, branches). This compulsion, applied to other fields, manifested itself as "intelligence." Every unknown word sent her to a dictionary--in search of something like "completion"--and every book led to another book, a process that, of course, could never be completed. This route through early life gave her no small portion of joy, and, indeed, it seemed at first that her desires and her capacities were basically aligned. She wanted to read things--could not resist wanting to read things--and reading was easily done, and relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, that she should receive any praise for such reflexive habits baffled the girl, for she knew herself to be fantastically stupid about many things. Wasn't it possible that what others mistook for intelligence was in fact only a sort of mutation of the will? ~ Zadie Smith

Streamline Your Focus Instead of Jumping From Unfinished Project to Unfinished Project

Although it seems contradictory, anxiety-related perfectionism can cause people to persist too long on some tasks and leave other projects unfinished. Perfectionists who are intolerant of uncertainty often jump from project to project. They might start multiple business plans, grant proposals, job applications, movie scripts, stand-up routines, craft projects, or novels, and not finish any of them. They may sour quickly on an idea when their self-doubt starts to creep in rather than stay with the idea long enough to realistically judge it's potential.
If you bounce from idea to idea, it could very well be because it's hard for you to tolerate your uncertainty about whether the idea you're working on is going to pan out. If you have a habit of not finishing things, you're likely to be better off sticking with a project and finishing it, instead of jumping to another project when you start to feel unsure.
To help you be less tempted to jump around, reduce your exposure to excessive information and alternatives. ~ Alice Boyes

Its the things in life that we love that keep us going. The willpower to achieve a goal and the hope of finishing it. The determination to never give up. The strength to pick ourselves back up. And the love to fuel it all. ~ Emir Talundzic

Oh, and one more thing: if I try something that I've never done before, something that's particularly difficult for me, and it doesn't work out, that doesn't make it a failure. The fact that I actually succeeded in finishing it makes it a huge success. Think of all the people that never even try. ~ Sebastian Cole

During one performance of 'Les Miserables,' the barricade didn't leave the stage, so we had to actually end up finishing the second act with the barricades on the stage, which was very strange ... doing the love scene on the barricade. ~ Josh Young

In the early '90s, I was finishing up my adolescence. I visited my local comic-book store on a weekly basis, and one week I found a book on the stands called 'Xombi,' published by Milestone Media. ~ Gene Luen Yang

Finishing overall champion at the World Series in both the individual and synchro events has given me great confidence and I'm pleased I've been diving with consistency. ~ Tom Daley

We always marry someone for the purpose of finishing our childhood. ~ Harville Hendrix

There is always a finishing line for everyone though we may not all have the same finishing line. ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

The whole, vast world was incomplete without me. Creation reached its finishing touch in me. ~ John Eldredge

I like finishing a movie and having this living, breathing thing. ~ Dean Cain

I met the devil,' Ernest said, finishing his glass of wine, 'and he doesn't give a damn about art. ~ Paula McLain

After every unladylike action, there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Consider the necessary, analyze the consequences, clean up the mess. ~ Gail Carriger

Keep looking at the finishing line in your way to achieve your dreams. Each step you take will carry you closer to your goal. Sometimes you will need to run, sometimes you will slow down to a walk, and sometimes you might need to take a break. Evaluate your effort, improve, and keep going; the only thing you will do wrong is to quit. Quitting will never take you anywhere but farther from your ambition and from all the effort you made so far. ~ Noora Ahmed Alsuwaidi

Being published is not a necessary validation or a path everyone wants to take with their work. Writing - and finishing - a novel is a great thing in itself, whether or not the book is published, or becomes widely-read or not. ~ Garth Nix

The style I have in judo is very unique ... One big advantage a judo player has is they have very good posture and - like, wrestlers, they show when they're about to do a take-down ... which judo players don't, and so I kind of incorporate the boxing style with a judo grip and finishing that way. ~ Ronda Rousey

The finishing off of the encircled enemy army is to be left to the Luftwaffe. ~ Franz Halder

But few have spoken of the actual pleasure derived from giving to someone, from creating something, from finishing a task, form offering unexpected help almost invisibly and anonymously. ~ Paul Lester Wiener

Thus, after finishing high school, I started with high expectations and enthusiasm to study chemistry at the famous Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. ~ Richard Ernst

Okay, so there's just you. Your goals, your career, your crew, your prospects, and your God. All together, chillin'. Before the house, the apartment, the kids, the boyfriend, the wedding, the night you crossed over with your frat brothers, there's that pivotal point of asking your heart, Who am I, really? What do I really like? Do I want to change for someone else? Is my soul mate right now, somewhere, finishing this sentence and completing my thoughts? ~ Kirk Franklin

Trust is a lot to ask of someone. ~ Gail Carriger

The next best thing after finishing writing a chapter is starting a new one. ~ Chris Almeida

Colleges have now become privileged finishing schools for girls. Except rather than teaching manners, they teach women that men are the enemy and men are treated as such on campus, unless they go along with the program that keeps them cowed or striking a PC pose. Many men have just decided that they don't belong in college and are going on strike, consciously or unconsciously. How will this affect their wages and lifestyles in the coming decades? If nothing changes and more and more men drop out of college or never attend, how will this change society? Will men continue to become the other, and be further relegated to second-class status where women and society are afraid of them and they are hesitant to participate fully in the public sphere? Is this already happening? The next chapter explores these questions. ~ Helen Smith

Not finishing is incrediable... it's open end!? ~ Deyth Banger

Attitude gives your work a good finishing beauty. You may be successful in what you do, but when you are not humble enough, nobody may get time to stop by to see what you have to show the world! ~ Israelmore Ayivor

For popular purposes, at least, the aim of literary artists should be similar to that of Rubens in his landscapes, of which, without neglecting the minor traits or finishing, he was chiefly solicitous to present the leading effect, or what we may call the inspiration. ~ William Benton Clulow

Decadence, decadence, he said to himself. They've lost everything and gained nothing. The French had merely daubed on the finishing touches at the end of a process which had begun five hundred years ago, at least. Their intuitive moral desires coincided with the ideals embodied in the formulas of their religion, yet they could live in accordance neither with those deepest impulses nor with the precepts of the religion, because society came in between with all the pressure of its tradition. No one could afford to be honest or generous or merciful because every one of them distrusted all the others; often they had more confidence in a Christian they were meeting for the first time than in a Moslem they had known for years. ~ Paul Bowles

I enjoyed in every way my 12 years of playing Archie, and I wasn't personally sad about finishing a long job. ~ Carroll O'Connor

Every great painting is left incomplete at the point where its completion is obvious. ~ Robert Breault

Let us do our best whilst we live for another tomorrow is coming when whilst we are long gone, another group of people shall come to either suffer from our worst or enjoy and build upon our best. Let us run whole heatedly today with all alacrity for another generation shall come for the baton from our hands to either blame us or congratulate us on how we lived the dream and journeyed in life through the good and the bad times; another generation shall come to ponder over our footprints as a good or a bad lesson for them! Let us run with all necessary zeal such that when we hand over the baton, our next generation will have no reason but to soldier on with courage, enthusiasm and absolute commitment to get to the finishing line with a great accomplishment and a noble story worth pondering over and over! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

I'm finishing my Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance history. ~ Peter Weller

You need two things to write a great book: imagination and inclination. Without one, your book will be boring; without the other, your book won't get finished at all. ~ Ellie Firestone

The man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simply formed the habit of failure. ~ Lettie Cowman

We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. ~ David Graeber

He thought of the Finishing School for Barbies where long-legged, high-breasted, stomachless girls went to get shaved clean, get their toenails painted pink, their nipples removed, and all body opening sewn shut, except for their mouths, which curved in perpetual smiles and led nowhere. ~ Kate Wilhelm

Finishing books - and leaving the world you've created - is always a kind of emotionally wrenching experience. I usually cry. ~ Lauren Oliver

Finishing Year Twelve had been a blessed relief. Although, having read Looking for Alibrandi several times since Year Eight, I was disappointed when Year Twelve did not bring me a handsome, salt-of-the-earth boyfriend and ultimate emancipation from all that ailed my teenage soul. ~ Laura Buzo

Doing something is interesting to some, if not any one is remembering that that thing has just been done. Doing something is interesting to some if not any one is remembering that any one was one beginning doing some such thing. Doing something is interesting to some when those are remembering that every one has been doing that thing in having been shown that thing. Doing something is interesting to some when they are certain that all having been doing that thing have been completely dead and have not been forgotten. Doing something is interesting to some when they are certain that very many being dead were ones completely doing that thing. Doing things are interesting to some when some one is beginning to be finishing having done that thing. Doing something is interesting to some when they are remembering that every one could be doing that thing. Doing something is interesting to some when they are certain that every one should do that thing. ~ Gertrude Stein

I have discovered that of all cursed places under the sun, where the hungriest soul can hardly pick up a few grains of knowledge, a girls' boarding-school is the worst. They are called finishing schools, and the name tells accurately what they are. They finish everything but imbecility and weakness, and that they cultivate. ~ Olive Schreiner

How do you complete a painting, really? There are paintings by so many different artists that are interesting precisely because they haven't really been completed. ~ Peter Doig

Keep on starting and finishing will take care of itself. ~ Neil A. Fiore

I love him to death, there's an Edwardian finishing touch to everything he does. ~ Helene Hanff

I've come to realize that however blue my circumstances, if after finishing a chapter of a Dickens novel I feel a miss-my-stop-on-the-train sort of compulsion to read on, then everything is probably going to be just fine. ~ Amor Towles

We're having a sleepover. We're going to do this all night, and I'm going to cuddle you like a motherfucker after finishing sexing every last orgasm out of you. ~ Helena Hunting

Persistence is important in every endeavor. Whether it's finishing your homework, completing school, working late to finish a project, or "finishing the drill" in sports, winners persist to the point of sacrifice in order to achieve their goals. ~ Lee Ellis