Imagination Writing Quotes

When I began my career as a writer I thought it would be fun to put my imagination to the page. Now I am finding out that my imagination is able to fill in those pesky holes called details all on its own, and then neglecting to tell me how it did it. ~ Jonathan Bender

A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way. ~ Caroline Gordon

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

Grab a pen and your turf will have no limits. ~ Nadun Lokuliyanage

Like Thomas Hardy with his Casterbridge, my own fictional Pennington is based on a well-known English county town, which I embellish with buildings, parks, and houses from my imagination. ~ Catherine George

I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money. ~ S.E. Hinton

Those who fear the imagination condemn it: something childish, they say, something monsterish, misbegotten. Not all of us dream awake. But those of us who do have no choice. ~ Patricia A. McKillip

Let the letters clash forming an invisible meaning of a sunny night, freezing chimney, and silent screams. When words betray you, hold on to your imagination. ~ Mona Naqi

That I isn't I anymore. It's someone else, the character who plays me, someone who's a better actor than I could ever be. I'm just the writer. Someone else is starring in my part. I remember him just well enough to try to write about him. A case of the negative sublime. I guess art's always after the fact. The real is imaginary, or imagined. Reconstitution, reconstruction, representation is all we're left with. Autobiography becomes biography in the end. ~ Charles Wright

Fiction is a great combination between experience and imagination. ~ Desi Puspitasari

Every bush can burn if you fire it with your imagination. ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

Writing opens the door to imagination. ~ Joe Evener

The reality I submerse myself in when writing, is far greater than the physical reality surrounding me at work! ~ D. P . Hall

'Castle' is a guy living in a fantasy world. He's in his imagination, writing these stories of murder. ~ Nathan Fillion

Artists, composers and writers...are bent upon capturing and reining in the insights of a fugitive imagination, always inclined to shoot off into the distance, before they can get away, and on bringing them back into the immediacy of material engagement. Like hunters, they too are dream-catchers. ~ Tim Ingold

It was all too easy to make things up, it was like skating on thin ice, it was like doing dainty pirouettes on a brittle crust over water thousands of fathoms deep. ~ Jostein Gaarder

I'm not
of this
world;
it pains me
deeply.
So, each night
just to survive,
I snip a piece of
mountain,
sea or sky
and fly. ~ Carolyn Riker

Sometimes the most exciting journey you can make is through your own imagination. ~ Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet

Having room to run and having just the space to use your imagination and create stories out of everyday life, I think that had a lot to do with me wanting write. And write songs ~ Taylor Swift

To write is to feel the dance of your soul swirling in a dream that drips imagination onto paper. ~ DiAnn Mills

I am simply impressed by the unexpected insights which shower down on me when my job is to imagine, as contrasted with the woodenly familiar ideas which clutter my desk when my job is to tell the truth. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others. ~ William Faulkner

Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got. ~ Philip Jose Farmer

Peter Rabbit, for all its gentle tininess, loudly proclaims that no story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it is not a work of imagination. ~ Maurice Sendak

You know, they ask me if I were on a desert island and I knew nobody would ever see what I wrote, would I go on writing. My answer is most emphatically yes. I would go on writing for company. Because I'm creating an imaginary - it's always imaginary - world in which I would like to live.
(Interview, The Paris Review) ~ William S. Burroughs

The art of writing is the manipulation of words to ease the mind and free the imagination ~ Danielle M. Maistry

Great fiction can often present moral messages with greater power and clarity than instructional writing - since literature, after all, penetrates not just the intellect, but the imagination. ~ Charles Colson

Wasn't writing a kind of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination? ~ Ian McEwan

How should a prospective writer go about becoming an author?
First of all, realise that it's very hard, and that writing is a grueling and lonely business and, unless you are extremely lucky, badly paid as well. You had better really, really, really want to do it. Next, you have to write something. Unless you are committed to novel writing exclusively, I suggest that you start out writing for radio. It's still a relatively easy medium to get into because it pays so badly. But it is a great medium for writers because it relies so much on the imagination. ~ Douglas Adams

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God. ~ Sidney Sheldon

Novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion. They make their own movie when they write: they're casting, they're dressing the scene, they're working out where the energy of the scene is coming from and they're also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader. ~ John Le Carre

For someone who writes fiction, in order to activate the imagination and the unconscious, it's essential to be free. ~ Manuel Puig

You will certainly not doubt the necessity of studying astronomy and physics, if you are desirous of comprehending the relation between the world and Providence as it is in reality, and not according to imagination. ~ Maimonides

The trouble with calling a book a novel, well, it's not like I'm writing the same book all the time, but there is a continuity of my interests, so when I start writing a book, if I call it 'a novel,' it separates it from other books. ~ Aleksandar Hemon

I would never write something that made me uncomfortable. I'm not sure it's even possible. ~ Lori Foster

I was writing a lot of true love songs-true love almost gone wrong but saved at the last moment ... Many of the best songs get written in a state of abject misery. I prefer to write fewer songs and have less cataclysmic events in my life ... Some hit songs are really stupid, and who knows why they're hits. But a lot of hit songs are really good. ~ Jorma Kaukonen

That, incidentally, gives me the greatest possible pleasure - the knowledge that we are all linked by our friendship with a group of fictional people. What a pleasant club of which to be a member! [from the preface; on writing for people around the world] ~ Alexander McCall Smith

how futile is man's poor, weak imagination by comparison with Nature's incredible genius. And ~ Edgar Rice Burroughs

Every time I tried writing my own songs, they would come out very country. I couldn't fight it, and the more I listened to country music, the more I loved it, and it just became very natural. ~ Hayley Orrantia

But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long words that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb. every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what-these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank. ~ William Zinsser

The curve of imagination, the curve of brilliance and the curve of sanity are identical curves or at least similar curves ... The more imagination a person has, why, the more intelligence, the more knowingness he has and the saner he's going to be. ~ L. Ron Hubbard

In the forest, I like you like that without anesthesia. ~ Gwen Calvo

Too often we sit back and speak platitudes of the nitty-gritty bits of writing; the editing, the story structure, the verbal sparring vs. banter, the character development, the world-building become more important to us than the tune rhythm of the tale. And when you lose the music of the story, all the footwork in the world is not going to make up for the loss of continuity and heart.
We need to take a step back in our souls and conjure the image of what this story is: the notes and beats and things woven into it's fullness. See, that's what is so easy to lose sight of as we write. We forget that, in a way, this story is a full story in itself. We tend to try to build the story piece by piece, line upon line, precept upon precept, but that--as any true writer knows--is not entirely practical. A story does have its own identity. To some extent, the story exists in your mind as a whole. Its own being. To chance sounding sappy: Your story is a full piece of music waiting for you to dance it into existence. Don't make the mistake of leaving out all the music.
It is tempting to want to have everything arranged to perfection so that little editing will be done. But if you are keeping in mind the way your story needs to run--feeling it and dwelling in the beauty of its passion and color and vibe--the footwork will take care of itself. Certainly it will require practice and your technicalities will need a little work--everyone's does. But you will have captured the essenc ~ Rachel Heffington

I didn't know anything about romance novels until a friend suggested that I try writing one. After I read a few, I realized that my favorite part of fiction had always been the relationship aspect. ~ Ruth Glick

Writers are like actors too. For every story we create, we must get under the skin of the characters and role play with our writing. ~ Jyoti Arora

A picture is first of all a product of the imagination of the artist; it must never be a copy. ~ Edgar Degas

It's precisely on the Internet that the majority of the writing is terribly bad and uninteresting. ~ Peter Greenaway

Here's what I want from a book, what I demand, what I pray for when I take up a novel and begin to read the first sentence: I want everything and nothing less, the full measure of a writer's heart. I want a novel so poetic that I do not have to turn to the standby anthologies of poetry to satisfy that itch for music, for perfection and economy of phrasing, for exactness of tone. Then, too, I want a book so filled with story and character that I read page after page without thinking of food or drink because a writer has possessed me, crazed with an unappeasable thirst to know what happens next. ~ Pat Conroy

I don't think of myself as a critic or teacher either, but simply - and at the obvious risk of disingenuousness - as someone who teaches, writes drama criticism (and other things) and feels that the American compulsion to take your identity from your profession, with its corollary of only one trade to a practitioner, may be a convenience to society but is burdensome and constricting to yourself. ~ Richard Gilman

Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat. ~ Dorothy Parker

Writers of fiction embellish reality almost without knowing it. ~ Aljean Harmetz

I don't care if my books don't sell abroad; we have a large enough market in our country. I write for Indian readers. ~ Ashwin Sanghi

One day, I shall explode like an artillery shell and all my bits will be found on the writing table. ~ Gustave Flaubert

The fear of Mortality is the base of Immortality ~ Udayveer Singh

Writing a portable OS is not much harder than a nonportable one, and all systems should be written with portability in mind these days. ~ Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I was kind of an outcast in school 'cause I always kept to myself and was writing poetry and then going on tour with my brother band all the time, so kids didn't know what to make of me. ~ Christina Perri

She had only been able to imagine what Kane was like. And she realised just how limited her imagination had been as he consumed every inch of her, thrusting into her with such controlled force that every part of her ached. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

Now the thing is no longer a vision: it is paper. ~ Annie Dillard

Much of the writing of physicists barely reaches the level of prose. ~ Steven Weinberg

It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table. Yet perhaps this may be done. The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment on your dish, and it will poison you. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there'll always be better writers than you and there'll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that - but you are the only you.

Tarantino - you can criticize everything that Quentin does - but nobody writes Tarantino stuff like Tarantino. He is the best Tarantino writer there is, and that was actually the thing that people responded to - they're going 'this is an individual writing with his own point of view'.

There are better writers than me out there, there are smarter writers, there are people who can plot better - there are all those kinds of things, but there's nobody who can write a Neil Gaiman story like I can. ~ Neil Gaiman

Writing is solitary. You spend so much time alone and in your own mind, telling stories. ~ Ruth Ozeki

Dear Mr. Weston,
Hello again. We were beginning to wonder what had happened to you. I guess things have been pretty quiet since the Salvation Army tried to take over the world.
We are sorry, but after much deliberation we have elected not to assign any men to Protect Trillium Air Base. We feel that the Forces can protect themselves, and if they can't, who is going to protect the country?
Also, thank you for sending us that shard of broken glass with the fingerprint on it. It was yours. Our mail clerk required four stitches and a tetanus shot.
Relay our condolences to your Mr. Waghorn. We have no idea what unfortunate circumstance (for him) drew him to your ever-watchful attention, but he has no criminal record and his face is not known to us. Yours Sincerely,
Bruce Hmmm, thought Sidney, Waghorn has no criminal record.
"Let me see one of those," said Tom.
"I'm sorry, Tom, but I can't show you the letters."
Tom muttered something about a lack of trust. He was extremely alarmed at the intensity of Sidney's expression. As Sidney himself would have put it, the investigation was progressing. That meant trouble. There was always trouble when his brother got to the letter-writing stage. Tom would have to stay on his toes.
Sidney opened the last letter. Dear Mr. Weston,
Please stop bothering us. Cordially yours,
The Ontario Provincial Police. ~ Gordon Korman

They told me that they are starting a classic label, and wanted me to be the first artist. So I signed, and am producing myself, and writing my own music, but I'm their first artist on their classic label. And I have creative control. ~ Teena Marie

I've had to keep defining and defending myself as a writer every single day of my adult life
constantly reminding and re-reminding my soul and the cosmos that I'm very serious about the business of creative living, and that I will never stop creating, no matter what the outcome, and no matter how deep my anxieties and insecurities may be. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

I don't write music for sissy ears. ~ Charles Ives

I did 'Red Riding,' which is TV in the U.K. It became a feature project in North America, but we're in a great era of TV. We all know that, and we hear it all the time, but for filmmakers, it's just a godsend to have your television writing and work to do on television, and the means to do it properly. ~ James Marsh