First-Year Composition

Writing Is . . .

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"Writing is making sense of life."  Nadine Gordimer                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              "In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. It's an aggressive, even a hostile act."  Joan Didion

"Writing is still revolutionary, writing is still about changing the world."  Dorothy Allison                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe."  David Hare

"Writing is a struggle against silence."  Carlos Fuentes                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         "The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power."  Toni Morrison                                                                                                                                          "Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."  Truman Capote

"The desire to write grows with the writing."  Erasmus

"Writing is a technology that restructures thought."  Walter Ong                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              "I consider writing an act of good citizenship."  Kurt Vonnegut                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            "The role of the writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say."  Anais Nin                                                                                                                                                                        "The first draft of anything is shit."  Ernest Hemingway                                                                                                                                     "The writer, unless he is a mere word processor, retains three attributes that power-mad regimes cannot tolerate: a human imagination, in the many forms it may take; the power to communicate; and hope."  Margaret Atwood

"Words are loaded pistols."  Jean-Paul Sartre

"Writing is nothing more than a guided dream."  Jorge Luis Borges                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            "I think of writing anything at all as a kind of high-wire act."  Joan Didion                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     "I still possess one conviction, one only, and I shall never be shaken from it: writing is a need felt by everyone. It's the highest form of the basic need to communicate."  Jean-Paul Sartre                                                                                                                                                                                  "A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all."  Rita Mae Brown                                                                                                                                                    "Write out your obsessions, your fears, your curiosities and needs."  Dorothy Allison

"Writing teaches us our mysteries."  Marie de L'Incarnation                                                                                                                                                                                               "Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write."  Natalie Goldberg

"In writing are the roots, in writing are the foundations of eloquence."  Quintilian                                                                                                                                               "Writing is making sense of life."  Nadine Gordimer                                                                                                                                                      "There is a lot of good writing. What there is less of is having something really important to say."  Barbara Ehrenreich                                                                                                                                                                             "The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."  Albert Camus                                                                                                                                            "Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write."  Anthony Trollope