My Favorite Quotes

These are just some quotes that I like. If you have any you'd like me to add, or you know who said something that I don't know who said it (indicated by -?), just e-mail me and I'll see what I can do.

I write only when I'm inspired. Fortunately I'm inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.
         -William Faulkner

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.
         -"an elderly practitioner"

Style is the writer.
         -E. B. White

Omit needless words! Omit needless words! Omit needless words!
         -William Strunk Jr.

Kill your darlings.
         -William Faulkner?

Being a writer is like having homework every day for the rest of your life.
         -Lawrence Kasdan (author of Raiders of the Lost Ark)

The writer's apprenticeship must be served like any other.
         -Dan Perez

The purpose of a man's heart are deep waters,
but a man of understanding draws them out.
         -Proverbs 20:5(NIV)

Gold there is, and silver in abundance,
but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.
         -Proverbs 20:15(NIV)

There are so many wonderful stories to be written, and so much material to be used. When I hear people talking of writer's block, I am amazed.
Start writing, no matter about what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. You can sit and look at a page for a long time and nothing will happen. Start writing and it will.
         -Louis L'Amour in Education of a Wandering man

The dogs bark, but the caravan passes on.
         -Oriental Proverb

Much is not dared because it seems hard; much seems hard only because it is not dared.
         -Prince Wenzel von Kaunitz Austrian Statesman

An idea upon which attention is peculiarly concentrated is an idea which tends to realize itself.
         -Charles Baudouin

Whoever would make of himself a distinctive individual must be keen to perceive what he is not.
         -Friedrich Schleiermacher

A book is a friend that will do what no other friend does-be silent when we wish to think.
         -Will Durant

Thoughts are like flowers; those gathered in the morning keep fresh the longest.
         -Andre Gide

No choicer gift can anyman give to another than his spirit's intimate converse with itself.
         -Friedrich Schleiermacher

One thing I have discovered about research: Let people know what you are looking for. Often the best information will come from the least likely sources. On one occasion when I was seeking information, and official sources had nothing to offer beyond a few sentences, the porter in my hotel introduced me to a man who had all the facts, and was one of the people whom I was investigating. Had I depended upon official sources or libraries, I would have left the country knowing nothing more than what had been printed for years. As it was, a door was opened for me and I learned a great deal.
No possible source should be despised, yet I have known some very bright people who ignored any but official sources. I admit that careful checking is necessary, but often that is easily done, once the basic facts are known.
         -Louis L'Amour in Education of a Wandering Man

Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty. But learn to be happy alone.
Rely upon your own energies, and so not want for, or depend on other people.
         -Professor Thomas Davidson

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
         -Alfred, Lord Tennyson from "Ulysses"

Do what thy manhood bids thee do,
From none but self expect applause;
He noblest lives and noblest dies
Who makes and keeps his self-made laws.
         -Sir Richard Francis Burton

Whoever said humans were logical? (in response to Spock saying that human's killing of the humpback whales being illogical)
         -Dr. Gillian Taylor (character in STAR TREK IV played by Catherine Hicks)

Live long and prosper.
         -Mr. Spock

Is there in truth no beauty?
         The title of the 62nd Star Trek episode. I think this is also from a Shakespeare play. If it is, can you please give me the details? Thanks.

Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
         -Spanish Proverb

Revenge is a dish best served cold. And it is very cold in space.
         -Khan (a character in STAR TREK II played by Ricardo Montalban)

It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.
         -Ernest Hemingway

The study of history is the beginning of political wisdom.
         -Jean Bodin

Faith tells us what the senses cannot, but it is not contrary to their findings. It simply trancends, without contradicting them.
         -Blaise Pascal

Nothing is so good that somebody, somewhere, will not hate it.
         -Frderick Pohl

If I can see far, it is because I have stood on the shoulder of giants.
         -Sir Isaac Newton

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
         -Kahil Gibran

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
         -Robert Cromier

They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
         -Lillian Hellman

We do not belive in ourselves until someone reveals that what's deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
         -E. E. Cummings

Nothing, not love, not greed, not passion or hatred, is stronger than a writer's need to change another writer's copy.
         -Arthur Evans

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, friend, an acquaintence, or a stranger.
         -Franklin P. Jones

The writer who cares more about words than about story (characters, action, setting, atmosphere) is unlikely to create a vivid and continuous dream; he gets in his own way to much; in his poetic drunkeness, he can't tell the cart - and the cargo - from the horse.
         -John Gardner

Man consists of body, mind, and imagination. His body is faulty, his mind untrustworthy, but his imangination has made him remarkable.
         -John Masefield

Hanging on to bitterness and resentment is like allowing someone you hate to live in your head and heart rent free.
         -?

If you worry, pray. If you pray, don't worry.
         -?

Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in any truth that is taught in life.
         -Schiller

Great writing can't be taught, but atrocious writing is entirely preventable.
         -?

My Deliverer is comin'; my Deliverer is standing by.
         -from the chorus of "My Deliverer is Coming" by Rich Mullins

Sacrifice should be on the part of the pastor, the husband, the parent.
         -?

We [Christians] are not under attack; we're on the attack.
         -?

Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
         -Samuel Johnson

Don't think! Write!
         -a sign Ray Bradbury keeps next to his desk

Dr. Miranda Jones (when Captain Kirk is giving her a rose): "I suppose it has thorns."
Kirk: "I never met a rose that didn't."
         -From the Star Trek episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?

A professional writer is an ametuer who didn't quit.
         -Richard Bach

Faith tells us what the sense cannot, but it is not contrary to their findings. It simply transcends without contradicting them.
         -Blaise Pascal