Writing shouldn’t come between the reader and what’s being described. It should be as transparent as possible.

Diana Athill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Athill

Storytelling, then, is born from our need to order everything outside ourselves. A story is like a magnet dragged through randomness, pulling the chaos of things into some kind of shape and – if we’re very lucky – some kind of sense. Every tale is an attempt to lasso a terrifying reality, tame it and bring it to heel.

John Yorke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yorke_(producer)

A film is only as good as its villain.

Alfred Hitchcock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock

The essential characteristic of the really great novelist is a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

Arnold Bennett

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Bennett

Writers are the custodians of memory.

William Zinsser

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Zinsser

How To Deal With The Press

She’ll urge you to confide. Resist.
Be careful, courteous, and cool.
Never trust a journalist.

‘We’re off the record,’ she’ll insist.
If you believe her, you’re a fool.
She’ll urge you to confide. Resist.

Should you tell her who you’ve kissed,
You’ll see it all in print, and you’ll
Never trust a journalist

Again. The words are hers to twist,
And yours the risk of ridicule.
She’ll urge you to confide. Resist.

‘But X is nice,’ the publicist
Will tell you. ‘We were friends at school.’
Never trust a journalist

Hostile, friendly, sober, pissed,
Male or female – that’s the rule.
When tempted to confide, resist.
Never trust a journalist.

Wendy Cope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Cope

Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

Kurt Vonnegut

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut

Sports journalist Walter Wellesley ‘Red’ Smith was asked if turning out a daily column wasn’t a chore. “Why no” dead-panned Red, “you simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Smith_(sportswriter)

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou

The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt and humiliation.

Steven Pressfield

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pressfield