DeRay Mckesson Quotes

I've summarized dozens of books in my literary career; it's become rather second nature.

I excelled in English while I was at school.

I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other.

The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write.

I was a terrible English student.

In high school, my English teacher Celeste McMenamin introduced me to the great novels and Shakespeare and taught me how to write. Essays, poetry, critical analysis. Writing is a skill that was painful then but a love of mine now.

I was also in love with the English language.

I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.

I read good. I was an English major.

What I realized is that my interest in literature has more deeply structured my practice than I thought.

I started school because I felt like, as a songwriter, I was operating solely on instinct, and I was having a hard time deciding exactly what words I wanted to use. I felt like I wanted to be a writer, and being a curious person, school felt like a way to solve the problems I was having with my own work.

If people want to be better writers, they can't just read the blogs! You've got to look at something that's outside this rushing world of evanescent words.

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.

When I was 19 years old, I wrote my first book. I took a computer science class, and the book was garbage. I thought I could write a better one, so I did.

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

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to teach it every day.

I don't read novels, but my semiotics study influenced everything about the way I read and edit and write.

My mother had been a Latin teacher, and she was always very fascinated with words. She and I shared books and responded to them.

The greatest texts, I think, first dazzle, then with careful rereading, they instruct. I have learned from Virginia Woolf more than I even know how to articulate.

I've found that writers who don't read really can't write.

I love to write. English is my favorite subject in school.

I think writing and reading are completely synergistic; not necessarily in that one has to be a good reader to be a good writer or vice versa, but that they so inform each other.

I feel more comfortable each time I sit down to write, but I'm determined to get better and better.

I love English and literature.

We're not just writers; we're readers probably more than anything else. That's how you learn how to write and how you learn to appreciate good writing: by reading.