John MacDonald Quotes

It is therefore necessary that memorable things should he committed to writing, and not wholly betaken to slippery memory which seldom yields a certain reckoning.

It has long been a theory of mine and I am known, if I do say so, for my long theories that authors, generally speaking, are rotten letter writers.

And I refuse to feel guilty about not letter-writing either. There are times when one can, times when one can't. In the times when an enormous amount of living is going on, one can't.

I consider it a good rule for letter-writing to leave unmentioned what the recipient already knows, and instead tell him something new.

I never wrote anything down. I never kept a diary, never kept a journal. I did write one letter home about touring with the Doors that I used as a reference for the book for some details there, and then I was glad I had that, but that was it.

Most personal correspondence of today consists of letters the first half of which are given over to an indexed statement of why the writer hasn't written before, followed by one paragraph of small talk, with the remainder devoted to reasons why it is imperative that the letter be brought to a close.

Oftentimes, when people write me 4,000-word letters, I write them back and tell them if their problem's that complicated, they probably need a lawyer or a cop, and not me.

Life is too precious to be spent in this weaving and unweaving of false impressions, and it is better to live quietly under some degree of misrepresentation than to attempt to remove it by the uncertain process of letter-writing.

The one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters.

It takes two to write a letter as much as it takes two to make a quarrel.

Letter writing is an excellent way of slowing down this lunatic helterskelter universe long enough to gather one’s thoughts

Someday I would love to write about Vincent van Gogh - his paintings and letters continue to inspire me very much. But it remains hard to find the time and inner rest to write.

Do not write me studied letters but ramble as you please.

When one is writing a letter, he should think that the recipient will make it into a hanging scroll.

Don't write anything down, but save everything that anyone else writes down.

Don't you like to write letters? I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something.

Pale ink is better than the most retentive memory. If it's written down, you can look it up. Just be damn sure you write it down.

If I could only write, I'd write a nasty letter to the mayor, if he could only read.

Never so long as you live, write a letter to a man - no matter who he is - that you would be ashamed to see in a newspaper above your signature.

Letters should be easy and natural, and convey to the persons to whom we send them just what we should say to the persons if we were with them.

How wonderful it is to be able to write someone a letter! To feel like conveying your thoughts to a person, to sit at your desk and pick up a pen, to put your thoughts into words like this is truly marvelous.

I would LOVE to be in the Star Trek sequel! Yeah! I would love to! I better write that letter to J.J.[Abrahams]

Ah, you're the one who wrote the letter. So you can write then.

The best letters of our time are precisely those that can never be published.

Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure.