Walter Gilbert Quotes

There are seldom more than a couple of students in any workshop who seem natural writers.

Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer.

No, I have to really focus, especially when I'm writing because I wanna be good at it.

One of the things I learnt over the years is that there is a craft to writing, like there is a craft to acting. I hadn't done my apprenticeship as a writer. I did try to be a writer for hire but I'm not any good at it.

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

If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say.

Writing teaches writing.

If you want to be a writer, you have to learn to write in other people's voices until you get the chance to write in your own.

I'm writing; I'm teaching myself writing.

If you want to be a good writer, be the best writer in the world. That's what I've done.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

If you want to be a writer, don't worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles.

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

I'm very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I've never really considered myself a writer.

When you're learning, especially to write, unless you're some incredibly gifted writer, a young Malcom Gladwell, say, you need to be imitating people. You need to be imitating how they make their work, how they structure it, how they design the pieces. It gives you chops; it gives you moves.

My first true lesson in writing came from Mr. Bowden when I was 16. At my high school, he was the teacher known to be the very best at literature and writing.

People say you can't teach writing, but I think that's nonsense.

I think you can be taught to write. You can't be taught to be a good writer. For that, you have to bring something to it, yourself, something that can't be given to you.

I have always thought that writers come with any variety of attributes. Some are capable and some aren't.

I work at the sentences. Many of the things people find distinctive about my writing, I think of as natural.

I never think that any writer can teach someone how to write.

Nothing teaches great writing like the very best books do. Yet, good teachers often help students cross that bridge, and I have to say that I had a few extraordinary English teachers in high school whom I still credit for their guidance.

The hardest thing was learning to write. I was 13, and the only writing I had done was for Social Studies. It consisted of copying passages right out of the encyclopedia.

If you are a good writer - and I think I am - you are able to handle any kind of group and imagine their lives.