James Toback Quotes

A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.

I can still put down some pretty nasty stuff on paper, which is what I enjoy doing.

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

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.

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

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

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

My seventeen years of teaching inform my sense of audience in every line I write.

Well see, I'm a good enough writer that not everybody in my books talks exactly like I do.

It's very hard to articulate the things that are important about writing.

English of course is your major tool, but it is not nearly so important as other aspects of writing for example you have to have some natural ability you can't buy it no one puts it there you're born with it.

I can write for any magazine now, in any voice. I can do it in two hours, I could do it in my sleep, it's like writing a grocery list.

I just believe that young people need to be able to learn how to write in their own voice. Just like a musician, you pride yourself on having your own distinct sound.

There are probably many, many people who are better writers than me.

I ain't no author, man... my writing skills are not of 'New York Times' best-seller quality, trust and believe it ain't. My vocabulary ain't.

I'm no lyrical stylist; you wouldn't pick me for a perfect sentence, and I certainly wouldn't describe my novels as intellectual.

Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers.

I don't know what makes a writer's voice. It's dozens of things. There are people who write who don't have it. They're tone-deaf, even though they're very fluent. It's an ability, like anything else, being a doctor or a veterinarian, or a musician.

The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.

I would hope that my writing's cleaner than it was when I started.

I write fast. I'm one of the lucky ones.

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

I've always thought of writing as sort of active communication.

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

That's something that is almost accidental at the beginning of a career, but the more you write, the more trained you are to recognize the little signals.