"The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from."

Fowler, Gene on writers and writing
4 fans of this quote   

"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."

Hellman, Lillian on writers and writing   

"If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves."

Hellman, Lillian on writers and writing
3 fans of this quote   

"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it."

Hemingway, Ernest on writers and writing
3 fans of this quote   

"In grade school, I was a complete geek. You know, there's always the kid who's too short, the kid who wears glasses, the kid who's not athletic. Well, I was all three."

Moore, Julianne on youth   

"Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of taste."

Connolly, Cyril on vulgarity   

"We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation."

Hazlitt, William on taboos   

"I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments."

Wilde, Oscar on talkativeness
9 fans of this quote   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"I'm an old-fashioned guy... I want to be an old man with a beer belly sitting on a porch, looking at a lake or something."

Depp, Johnny on tradition   

"I've come to realize that life is not a musical comedy, it's a Greek tragedy."

Joel, Billy on tragedies   

"It was no great tragedy being Judy Garland's daughter. I had tremendously interesting childhood years -- except they had little to do with being a child."

Minnelli, Liza on tragedies   

"The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means."

Stoppard, Tom on tragedies   

"Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life."

Bacall, Lauren on vanity
3 fans of this quote   

"A narcissist is someone better looking than you are."

Vidal, Gore on vanity
4 fans of this quote   

"I have never fallen in love with my own voice, but I've always had an attraction for it."

Snyder, Tom on voice   

"Everything that used to be a sin, is now a disease."

Maher, Bill on sin   

"Most of us know perfectly well what we ought to do; our trouble is that we do not want to do it."

Marshall, Peter on sin
3 fans of this quote   

"The only people who should really sin are the people who can sin and grin."

Nash, Ogden on sin
4 fans of this quote   

"Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven."

Stravinsky, Igor on sin   

"The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."

Wilde, Oscar on sin
11 fans of this quote   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Really to sin you have to be serious about it."

Ibsen, Henrik on sin   

"Show business is really 90 per cent luck and 10 per cent being able to handle it when it gets offered to you."

Steele, Tommy on show business   

"Show business is the best possible therapy for remorse."

Loos, Anita on show business   

"I am not a lesbian and I am not a slut, and somehow I am going to make people believe me."

Williams, Vanessa on sex   

"I believe that it's better to be looked over than it is to be overlooked."

West, Mae on sex
3 fans of this quote   

"I know there are nights when I have power, when I could put on something and walk in somewhere, and if there is a man who doesn't look at me, it's because he's gay."

Turner, Kathleen on sex   

"Everyone probably thinks that I'm a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I'd rather read a book."

Madonna on sex
4 fans of this quote   

"There is no sin except stupidity."

Wilde, Oscar on sin
5 fans of this quote   

"No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone."

Browne, Jackson on solitude
8 fans of this quote   

"If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry."

Chekhov, Anton on solitude
5 fans of this quote   

"Do we really want to know how Michael Jackson makes his music? No. We want to understand why he needs the bones of the Elephant Man -- and, until he tells us, it doesn't make too much difference whether or not he really is bad."

Zappa, Frank on stardom
5 fans of this quote   

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."

Swanson, Gloria on stardom   

"It's nice to be a part of history but people should get it right. I may not be perfect, but I'm bloody close."

Rotten, John Lydon on stardom   

"Being at the center of a film is a burden one takes on with innocence -- the first time. Thereafter, you take it on with trepidation."

Lewis, Daniel Day on stardom   

"You have to know exactly what you want out of your career. If you want to be a star, you don't bother with other things."

Horne, Marilyn on stardom   

"One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed."

Hoffman, Dustin on stardom   

"Much more frequent in Hollywood than the emergence of Cinderella is her sudden vanishing. At our party, even in those glowing days, the clock was always striking twelve for someone at the height of greatness; and there was never a prince to fetch her back to the happy scene."

Hecht, Ben on stardom   

"God makes stars. I just produce them."

Goldwyn, Samuel on stardom   

"I'd rather be dead than singing Satisfaction when I'm forty-five."

Jagger, Mick on song and singing   

"I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain't music, it's close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music."

Holiday, Billie on song and singing
3 fans of this quote