Writing Voice Quotes

I can't write from the subconscious actually, because a lot of the time when I co-write with other people, I'm writing for them as opposed to for myself. When it comes to lyrics, I tend to want to give them their voice, since it's most likely going to be on their record, or somebody else's record. And I find for more commerial-style music, people want simplicity, less vagueness, and less space to fill between the lines, so to speak. So I can't be quite as ethereal and mystical. ~ Gary Louris

I began wanting to create a detective who really turned the tables on that image of women, to know that you could have a sex life and not be a bad person. You could have a sex life and still solve your own problems. It was eight years from when I started having the fantasy that I was going to create such a detective to when I actually sat down and came up with V. I. Warshawski. It was a long, slow journey to come to a writing voice and do that character. ~ Sara Paretsky

Literature supplements the lives of people and enables us to feel connected with the world. Shared stories blunt a sense of tragic aloneness, and endow us with the tools to understand our humanness. Reading about the lives of other people acquaints us with the hardships of other people. The authorial voices of narrative prose express our shared feelings of deprivation ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

The dilemma for women who love to write may not have so much to do with finding the elusive literary voice, as with being reluctant to use the one that's already lurking inside, just waiting for the chance to speak up. Many of us, especiall,y those from the generations taught to be good, accommodating girls, are afraid of sounding too strong, too loud, too unconventional, or simply too much like the self we're afraid to reveal to the world. Most of us have at least an inkling of what form our writing voice should take, if only we might find the courage to reveal it. ~ Nava Atlas

Voice is one of the most elusive qualities in any story. We recognize it when we hear it, but it's hard consciously to create an authentic voice. Somehow voice seems to be the natural manifestation of all the narrative decisions we've made so far. We discover it more than we fabricate it. ~ Philip Gerard

I have a particular style of writing and my voice sounds a particular way, which lends itself to a certain style. ~ Brooke Fraser

It felt good to be writing in her own room, in her own bed. To get lost in the World of Mages and stay lost. To not hear any voices in her head but Simon's and Baz's. Not even her own. This was why Cath wrote fic. For these hours when their world supplanted the real world. ~ Rainbow Rowell

Writing with voice is writing into which someone has breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying a conversation ... Writing with real voice has the power to make you pay attention and understand
the words go deep. ~ Peter Elbow

Writing voice isn't as much a function of thinking as it is something that eludes definition and therefore assimilation. The more artful flavors of prose are more often a function of intuition and imitation fused with heart and wit and delivered with a strong does of lyric sensibility. It ~ Larry Brooks

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

I lost my voice. I'd never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down. ~ Paul McCartney

One of the things about writing a novel is you can do it any way you want. It's your voice that's important and I see absolutely no reason why a screenplay can't be the same. It makes it a hell of a lot easier when you're the writer and the director. ~ Quentin Tarantino

We have a tradition of passing our history orally and singing a lot of it and writing songs about it and there's kind of a calling in Irish voices when they're singing in their Irish accent. ~ Sinead O'Connor

There was about a two-year period at the end of the '60s, when I realized I was in the wrong place and entertaining the wrong people with the wrong material and that I was not being true to myself. I went through a metamorphosis into something more authentic for me, a more authentic stage voice and writing voice. ~ George Carlin

Each time you write something, part of you grows. You're training your artistic muscles to find your voice. ~ Pen Densham

Well, when I was a young writer the people we read were Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sartre, Camus, Celine, Malraux. And to begin with, I was a bit of a copycat writer and very derivative and tried to write a novel using their voices, really ... I keep it out of print. ~ Mordecai Richler

What we call the freedom of the individual is not just the luxury of one intellectual to write what he likes to write but his being a voice which can speak for those who are silent. ~ Stephen Spender

I'd say my writing voice is original, and I don't think you'll find another quite like it. This makes me sad, because when all my clones arrive sometime in the future, their only hope is to try to copy me. ~ Jarod Kintz

Writing was in its origin, the voice of an absent person. ~ Sigmund Freud

In writing poetry, all of one's attention is focused on some inner voice. ~ Li-Young Lee

Write what you would love to read. Finish what you begin to write. Your voice is uniquely yours and we are all waiting to hear it. ~ Jody Lynn Nye

Whether your purpose for writing is artistic expression, communication with friends and family, the healing of the inner life, or achieving public recognition for your art - the foundation is the same: the claiming of yourself as an artist/writer and the strengthening of your writing voice through practice, study, and helpful response from other writers. ~ Pat Schneider

A writer's voice emanates from their interest and compulsions that absorbs them completely. Only by fully committing himself or herself to a pet subject or issue can the writer develop a thematic tone that speaks to other people with authority and serenity. The quality of their literary voice is the crucial part of the writer's legitimacy, and their authenticity cannot come from mimicking other writers' style, but must evolve naturally from their inner sanctity and must flow effusively from an inner necessity. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

I don't write because of some rare talent. I write because I have a little voice inside of me that says really cool things and never shuts up. ~ Todd Newton

My own words, when I am at work on a story, I hear too as they go, in the same voice that I hear when I read in books. When I write and the sound of it comes back to my ears, then I act to make changes. I have always trusted this voice. ~ Eudora Welty

Embrace the melancholic voice completely in the drafting stages, to explore it for all it's worth. Then, in revision, privilege craft over pure feeling. Write the work that someone besides you will want to read. ~ David Starkey

A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms. ~ Patricia Lee Gauch

I have never thought of writing as hard work, but I have worked hard to find a voice. ~ Randy Pausch

It's much better to be a tribal writer, writing for all people and reflecting many voices through us, than to be a cloistered being trying to find one peanut of truth in our own individual mind. Become big and write with the whole world in your arms. ~ Natalie Goldberg

Enya never writes a bad melody. That's first and foremost her secret. As she goes along, she'll start changing the dynamics, pushing here and there so that not everything is perfectly in unison. It adds a texture you can acquire only from having different voices. The variations lead to interesting quirks. It's an integral part of the Enya sound. ~ Nicky Ryan

Style and voice are different. Style is standard conventions of writing; voice is the distinct way an individual puts words together. All good writers have a near-uniform understanding of style, but a voice all their own. ~ Naveed Saleh

I've heard writers talk about "discovering a voice," but for me that wasn't a problem. There were so many voices that I didn't know where to start. ~ Sam Shepard

I'll write and make chords with my voice sometimes if I don't have an instrument even though it takes a million times longer. ~ Zooey Deschanel

Write relentlessly, until you find your voice. Then, use it. ~ David Sedaris

He who speaks, he who writes is above all one who speaks on behalf of all those who have no voice. ~ Victor Serge

Graham Wallas has reminded us that writing as compared with speaking involves an impression at the second remove and reading an impression at the third remove. The voice of a second-rate person is more impressive than the published opinion of superior ability. ~ Harold Innis

You must find the right voice (or voices) for the timbre that can convince a reader to give himself up to you. ~ Erica Jong

The habit of prayer communicates a penetrating sweetness to the glance, the voice, the smile, the tears,
to all one says, or does, or writes. ~ Philibert Joseph Roux

Well, it's my voice, so it's more accessible that way, and there are also all sorts of things like plot and timelines that are already known entities, so for me, it's very different from writing fiction. ~ Alice Sebold

There's this pet phrase about writing that is bandied around particularly in workshops about "finding your own voice as a poet", which I suppose means that you come out from under the direct influence of other poets and have perhaps found a way to combine those influences so that it appears to be your own voice. ~ Billy Collins

I wanted to escape the unrest, to shut out the voices around me and within me, so I write. ~ Franz Kafka

You meditate and you got the candles, you got the incense and you've been chanting, and all of a sudden you hear this voice: 'Write this down' ~ Carlos Santana

Most of screenplay writing is deciding which voices you want to listen to and take on board. ~ Abi Morgan

It's pretty interesting how it all started out. After The Voice, I got introduced to some of my publishing people. We were out in Los Angeles and they said to give them a call when the show was all said and done and they'd get me into the writing world. ~ Curtis Grimes

I write five, six days a week. The thing is capturing the voice. I feel like I've been perfecting one voice - in different iterations, sure, but the Russian-ness has always been the undercurrent. ~ Gary Shteyngart

When I write characters, I need to hear their voice. As soon as I get them speaking, and I feel how they use language, I understand who they are and what they want. ~ Dana Spiotta

Another benefit is that the more I blog, the more I maintain and develop a first-person voice, which translates into a much greater ease with writing personal essays. ~ Kate Christensen

You will not read voice on the page; you will hear it in your head. ~ Philip Gerard

When you write, it's just a much more crystalline, compressed version of the voice you think with - though not the one you speak with. I think your writing voice is your laser-guided missile. It's the poetry part of you. ~ Douglas Coupland

Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul. ~ Meg Rosoff

Finding a voice that your readers will enjoy is largely a matter of taste. Saying that isn't much help-taste is a quality so intangible that it can't even be defined. But we know it when we meet it. ~ William Zinsser

You have to write a million words before you find your voice as a writer. ~ Henry Miller

You and you alone are the only person that can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice. ~ Kerry Washington

When I read, I hear what's on the page. I don't know whose voice it is, but some voice is reading to me, and when I write my own stories, I hear it, too. ~ Eudora Welty

Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write. ~ Elmore Leonard

I have to declare in all candor that no one interested in being published in our time can afford to be so naive as to believe that a book will make it merely because it's good. ~ Richard Curtis

At the end of the day, I'm writing in a genre that isn't highly regarded. ~ Philippa Gregory

It does not take much to imagine the humanity of people you don't know. ~ Elliott Colla

I pitched my voice for Dirty Harry, but it was more Lisping Baggins. ~ David Mitchell

Percy," Apollo said, "I wouldn't worry too much. The last Great Prophecy about you took almost seventy years to complete. This one may not even happen in your lifetime."
I thought about the lines Rachel had spoken in that creepy voice: about storm and fire and the Doors of Death. "Maybe," I said, "but it didn't sound so good."
"No," said Apollo cheerfully. "It certainly didn't. She's going to make a wonderful Oracle! ~ Rick Riordan

It was Delaney's image that was present in her mind,waking or sleeping.It was Delaney's touch for which she yearned,the sound of his voice she desired to hear.It was Delaney she wanted close to her.It was Delaney,the other part of herself,the imtimate core of her,whom she missed to the point of pain ~ Elaine Barbieri

In a text, there's this voice that speaks to you from a position of power, that doesn't communicate that it's doing that at all and tries to hide its power. We were trying to be overt about what power was happening, and speak in a way that wasn't so fucking sure of itself. If it was sure of itself it was in the form of a performance. ~ Anonymous

Run away with me - tonight." Above them the brilliant moon beckoned, promising to light their way. Her voice sounded queer and far off, weak with longing and despair. "No runnin' off like Ma done, Simon. ~ Laura Frantz

I like writing songs all females can relate to - songs about when you're a chick and you get your heart broken and you go shopping. ~ Nikka Costa

His voice nearly inaudible. He turned to look at me with a wistful expression. The golden eyes held mine, and I lost my train of thought. I stared at him until he looked away. You haven't asked me ~ Stephenie Meyer

To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

The rules are all in a sixty-four-page pamphlet by Aristotle called 'Poetics.' It was written almost three thousand years ago, but I promise you, if something is wrong with what you're writing, you've probably broken one of Aristotle's rules. ~ Aaron Sorkin

Writing and telling are almost the same, the way I do it. ~ Daniel Pinkwater

When I was in college, I used to write little ditties and short stories and poetry for my friends. Writing a book is another thing. It is so much different from my traditional day of dirty fingernails and greasy hair and hot pans. ~ Mario Batali

War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves. ~ Leo Tolstoy

If I would get an album out every eight months and if I would write songs that were more up-tempo and try to focus more on making singles, then I could probably get more attention. But I don't think the albums would be very fun to listen to, and it would be a drag for me. ~ Chris Isaak

I've always been more than a little mystified by poets who seem to think talking to people as directly as possible is a bad thing. I mean, I don't want to set up a straw man here: I understand that for many poets - and for me, at times - writing truly means writing in a way that is difficult, simply because the poem is trying to grasp for something elusive. So the difficulty of the poem is just unavoidable, and not in any way artificially imposed. So "as possible" is the key part of the phrase above, I suppose. ~ Matthew Zapruder

King became the movement's voice and launched a new phase of mass protest.
He was a disciple of the teachings of Gandhi and Thoreau, as well as of Jesus. He
emphasized nonviolent civil disobedience. The civil rights struggle was not against
whites, but against injustice; its most important weapons were not anger and hate
but love and forgiveness, King declared.
65
On ~ Anthony R. Fellow

Show me a writer, any writer, who hasn't suffered and I'll show you someone who writes in pastels as opposed to primary colors. ~ Rita Mae Brown

In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?' His voice dropped to a whisper. 'But here's the secret: in between, we need others as well. ~ Mitch Albom

I write to find out about how the world sings. ~ Jeanine Tesori

His voice gave out and he made several wavy motions with his hand, indicative of the shape of a woman who would probably be unable to keep her balance. ~ Terry Pratchett

Gardeners (or just plain simple writers who write about the garden) always have something they like intensely and in particular, right at the moment you engage them in the reality of the borders they cultivate, the space in the garden they occupy at any moment, they like in particular this, or they like in particular that. ~ Jamaica Kincaid

She said that everything had colour in her thought; the months of the year ran through all the tints of the spectrum, the days of the week were arrayed as Solomon in his glory, morning was golden, noon orange, evening crystal blue, and night violet. Every idea came to her mind robed in its own especial hue. Perhaps that was why her voice and words had such a charm, conveying to the listeners' perception such fine shadings of meaning and tint and music. ~ L.M. Montgomery

So apart from writing letters home to your fantasy girlfriends,"Ben says, walking backwards, "what do you guys do out here without television and phones?"
"Men's business. Bit confidential," Griggs says patronisingly.
"Wow, wish I were you," Ben says, shaking his head with mock regret. "All I'll be doing tonight is hanging out in Taylor's bedroom, lying on her bed, sharing my earphones with her, hoping she won't hog all the room because it's such a tiny space. ~ Melina Marchetta

When I was in my early to mid-teens, that was a very heavy diet of science fiction and fantasy, so those were the kinds of books I tended to imagine writing someday, or even began to try to write. ~ Michael Chabon

WIDE, the margin between carte blanche and the white page. Nevertheless it is not in the margin that you can find me, but in the yet whiter one that separates the word-strewn sheet from the transparent, the written page from the one to be written in the infinite space where the eye turns back to the eye, and the hand to the pen, where all we write is erased, even as you write it. For the book imperceptibly takes shape within the book we will never finish.
There is my desert. ~ Edmond Jabes

She's an old man," he muttered. "The girl I like is a buff old man with a voice deeper than mine. ~ Rick Riordan

I write almost everything, actually. Songs, poems, stories. And stories out of every genre, too. ~ Jackie Evancho

Wendy," Peter Pan continued in a voice that no woman has ever yet been able to resist, "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys. ~ J.M. Barrie

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Leadership is not a voice crying in the wilderness, aloof and apart. It requires an ability to command as well as to inspire, to learn in the process of collaboration and to build a team with a common purpose that can take action and execute the change they envision. ~ Bob Rae

Nature herself seems, I say, to take the pen out of his hand, and to write for him with her own bare, sheer, penetrating power. ~ Matthew Arnold

After 'A Suitable Boy,' I didn't write anything, not even a short story. I thought to myself: 'I ought to start writing.' But I can never force myself to write. ~ Vikram Seth

I fell back against the wall and he came up to me, grinding his teeth, and, as I fell upon my knees, he hissed mad, incoherent words and curses at me. Leaning over me, he cried, 'Look! You want to see! See! Feast your eyes, glut your soul on my cursed ugliness! Look at Erik's face! Now you know the face of the voice! You were not content to hear me, eh? You wanted to know what I looked like! Oh, you women are so inquisitive! Well, are you satisfied? I'm a very good-looking fellow, eh? … When a woman has seen me, as you have, she belongs to me. She loves me for ever. I am a kind of Don Juan, you know!' And, drawing himself up to his full height, with his hand on his hip, wagging the hideous thing that was his head on his shoulders, he roared, 'Look at me! I AM DON JUAN TRIUMPHANT!' And, when I turned away my head and begged for mercy, he drew it to him, brutally, twisting his dead fingers into my hair."

"Enough! Enough!" cried Raoul. "I will kill him. In Heaven's name, Christine, tell me where the dining-room on the lake is! I must kill him!"

"Oh, be quiet, Raoul, if you want to know!"

"Yes, I want to know how and why you went back; I must know! … But, in any case, I will kill him!"

"Oh, Raoul, listen, listen! … He dragged me by my hair and then … and then … Oh, it is too horrible!"

"Well, what? Out with it!" exclaimed Raoul fiercely. "Out with it, quick!"

"Then he hissed at me. 'Ah, I frighten you, do I? … I da ~ Gaston Leroux

God ... Becca." His voice was thick, low, rough. "How am I supposed to be able to breathe when you're so beautiful? ~ Jasinda Wilder

Speaking to you is like writing in the sand. My words and thoughts just wash away when the tide rises. ~ Zachary Koukol