Susan Sontag Quotes

I think I made a lot of sacrifices.

What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? Writing requires you make sacrifices. Be prepared to work hard to be a writer.

A lot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this career of mine.

When I'm working on a movie, I will make any sacrifice to finish it.

Nothing of value is ever won without sacrifice.

I'm always trying. Between every book, I think, 'Well now, it's time to get down to the serious stuff.'

Professional creativity requires more than inspiration, talent, and discipline - it requires an endurance that few are aware of and even fewer have.

I think success is very hard work, so, you know, if you work hard and you have some success, you have to give up something.

I give up so much to do what I do. Like, I give up a personal life. I give up my friends, my family. I give up a lot of stuff to pursue what I love and to make my fans happy. I give up so much. So, I'm going to be the best.

Here's the truth about telling stories with your life. It's going to sound like a great idea, and you're going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you're not going to want to do it. It's like that with writing books, and it's like that with life. People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.

The fools who write articles about me think that one morning I suddenly decided to write and began to produce masterpieces. There is no special trick about writing, or painting either. I wrote constantly for 15 years before I produced anything with any solidity to it.

Writing is grunt work - you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith... talent is the smallest part of it.

That's the interesting thing about writing. You can start late, you can be ignorant of things, and yet, if you work hard and pay attention you can do a good job of it.

Even after you've won fame and fortune, every time you write you've got to write, there's no shortcut, you have to start your career all over again.

Writing is mainly perspiration, not inspiration.

There is an interesting point about the price of success: It must always be paid in full-and in advance. Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to be healthy, happy, thin, and rich. But most people are not willing to pay the price.

I worked as hard to write the worst film of the year as I did to write the best film of the year.

We knew from the beginning the level of commitment needed. We felt honored to work with Stanley Kubrick. We were going to do what it took to do this picture, whatever time, because I felt - and Nic [Nicole Kidman] did, too - that this was going to be a really special time for us. We knew it would be difficult. But I would have absolutely kicked myself if I hadn't done this.

As for work, without it, without painstaking work, any writer or artist definitely remains a dilettante; there's no point in waiting for so-called blissful moments, for inspiration; if it comes, so much the better--but you keep working anyway.

Discipline to me is sacrifice; it's willingness to give up something you want to do, so you can better yourself.

Writing a novel is like building a wall brick by brick; only amateurs believe in inspiration.

Start early and work hard. A writer's apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he's almost ready to begin. That takes a while.

Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can't be given away : it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline.

Judge your success by what you had to give up to get it.

Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.