"I'm just going to write because I can't help it."- Charlotte Brontë


Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Because I Love A Good Writing Quote or Two (And Haven't Got Much Time For Blogging)


Here, over at SFWA, Larry Hodges has provided a bonanza of 50 quotes. Hastily skimming it, I especially like the obviousness of 13 & 35, and the Jasper Fffordeaness of 17:

13. "Writers never quit and quitters never write."

17. "Choose your words carefully because somewhere in there is a character who has to live with what you choose."

35. "If you write regularly, soon you'll have a lot written. If you don't, you won't."

Now I have to head off to the city for medical crap even though it's my designated don't-take-the-train-to-the-Arvo-Job-but-stay-at-home-and-do-stuff-like-reading-and-writing day. Toodles.

4 comments:

parlance said...

Good luck with the medical stuff. Great quote about quitters.

I've been reading a book called Before They Were Giants, First Works from Science Fiction Greats. A selection of the first published stories by now-famous spec fic writers, with an interview. Some good quotes in it.

But...only one woman writer!

Gitte Christensen said...


Thank you - all is going well with the medical crap. And yes, the undeniable truth of not getting much done if you quit is irrefutable.

I Googled the book. Looks good. It'd be fun to read those first pieces and compare them with what came later. Sad about the lone woman writer though, because, like, of course, as we all know, there are no female giants or greats in SF (Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler,James Tiptree Jr., Ursula le Guin...) It reminds me of the whole Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF debacle a few years ago with the TOC that didn't include a single woman, because obviously women don't write mindblowing SF (Vonda McIntyre,C. J. Cherryh, Judith Merrill, Elizabeth Bear...)

Maybe one day things will change. Isn't that what SF is all about?

parlance said...

I just lost all credibility s a sf reader. I didn't know James Tiptree, Jnr was a woman.

Gitte Christensen said...


Better late than never :) But you're in good company - Alice fooled a lot of people for the longest time.

And for the record, as far as I'm concerned, 'The Screwfly Solution' that Tip/Alice wrote as Racoona Sheldon has always been right up there on the mindblowing end of the sf scale.