Michael Arndt Quotes

Good writing is good writing, and I'm so happy when I read it.

Once something is well-written, then everything else is gravy.

By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.

There is no pleasure in the world like writing well and going fast.

It's easy to write something average or even something good. But writing well is quite challenging.

Learn to write well, or not to write at all.

Being literate as a writer is good craft, is knowing your job, is knowing how to use your tools properly and not to damage the tools as you use them.

I think all good writing is a struggle. To write as well as you feel you can has to be a struggle, almost by definition, because you could always improve.

You know if something is good because you remember the lines because it is written so well. The rhythm of the speech is spot on.

The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis.

Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

I think the thing that has made it possible for me to write personal songs and sing them year after year is the sensibility for good writing. Just opening your veins all over the paper is not necessarily going to be interesting. I wanted to speak to people.

Good storytelling appeals to me - good writing.

When you write something it has to hit the level that you accept as being good.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

Ultimately, the first, best step in getting your work noticed is to write good work. If people don't engage in your writing, no amount of serialization or free downloads is going to matter. You have to write something worth reading, and often it takes time to get at that level.

There is good and mediocre writing within every genre.

You start realizing that good prose is crunchy. There's texture in your mouth as you say it. You realize bad writing, bland writing, has no texture, no taste, no corners in your mouth. I'm a great believer in reading aloud.

You have to go where the good writing is.

A.J. Liebling, one of my heroes, used to say that he could write better than anyone who wrote faster, and faster than anyone who could write better. I'm one nine-hundredth as good as Liebling, but that principle may slightly apply.

Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.

Agents and publishers only want one thing - good writing.

Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.

Write for yourself, not for a perceived audience. If you do, you'll mostly fall flat on your face, because it's impossible to judge what people want. And you have to read. That's how you learn what is good writing and what is bad. Then the main thing is application. It's hard work.