Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Quotes

I want to leave behind a literary legacy.

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth - anonymously and posthumously.

To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.

I'm not scared about saying what I think.

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

I dare you all to write one more thing that you won't say to my face.

I was always ambitious - not to make money: to be published.

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity.

Platitudes are safe, because they're easy to wink at, but truth is something else again.

You can't be afraid to embarrass yourself sometimes.

A few of Ellison's short stories from the 1940s and 1950s were widely anthologized over the years. After a while, it became generally known that he was at work on another novel. Though he remained aware ever afterward of the authority 'Invisible Man' gave to him, no second novel followed his brilliant debut in 1952.

It is not when it is dangerous to tell the truth that its advocates are hardest to find, but when it is boring.

Write words you’re willing to burn at the stake for. Write words you’d believe in even if the rest of the world didn’t.

A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to.

Writing is both mask and unveiling.

Be truthful, gentle, and fearless.

I think a good thing that needs to change is that people should be at least fearless about expressin' themselves.

I have realized that mystery is what keeps people away, and I've grown tired of smoke and mirrors. I yearn for the clean, well-lighted place. So let's peek behind the curtain and hail the others like us. The open-faced sandwiches who take risks and live big and smile with all of their teeth. These are the people I want to be around. This is the honest way I want to live and love and write.

We should put pressure on power and write the truth and write relentlessly and fearlessly. That's the job.

... stop trying to get me to write about 'decent courageous people' -- read the Ladies' Home Journal for those! ... I believe in going through and facing the worst, not hiding from it.

I think what saved me is me being honest. I think I somewhow had the courage to do something and say something that I knew would possibly end my career. Instead of making business more important I made my soul and my life more important. And I think by being truthful, and being honest, that saved me.

If you really hate me, you should at least have the courtesy to take out a piece of paper and write it down and mail it to me. If you're a worthy nemesis, I want to see your handwriting. I want to see your name and your address, and if you don't have the guts to give me those, then you're not a worthy nemesis.

Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the running to spread the truth among such persons.

We write frankly and freely, but then we modify before we print.

Truth and freedom, having few lovers, are demanding mistresses.