“Any first rate novel or story must have in it the strength of a dozen fairly good stories that have been sacrificed to it. A good workman can't be a cheap workman; he can't be stingy about wasting material, and he cannot compromise. Excerpt taken from On the Art of Fiction by Willa Cather circa 1920.”
Willa Cather
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
Similar quotes
“You can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself.”
Richard Ford
“Don't worry about meaning. If a story's any good, it can't help but have meaning. Let the PhDs tell you what your story means.”
William Kittredge
“Next to us is not the workman whom we have hired, with whom we love so well to talk, but the workman whose work we are.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
“You can't write any form of fiction unless you enjoy reading it. You must be sincere in your approach. It's no good despising the form. So many people think they could earn some money from writing something for which they have no affection. It won't work. The first thing you have to have is belief.”
Charlotte Bingham
“He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled”
Aristotle