Karl Kraus Quotes

I think I write in order to discover on my shelf a new book that I would enjoy reading, or to see a new play that would engross me.

Young writers should read books past bedtime and write things down in notebooks when they are supposed to be doing something else.

The pleasures of writing correspond exactly to the pleasures of reading

writing is the profound pleasure and being read the superficial.

Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?

I would say that writing, both the act of writing, and of course reading of other people's work is, for me, supreme joy.

If I write nothing but fiction for some time I begin to get stupid, and to feel rather as if it had been a long meal of sweets; then history is a rest, for research or narration brings a different part of the mind into play.

I would give them (aspiring writers) the oldest advice in the craft: Read and write. Read a lot. Read new authors and established ones, read people whose work is in the same vein as yours and those whose genre is totally different. You've heard of chain-smokers. Writers, especially beginners, need to be chain-readers. And lastly, write every day. Write about things that get under your skin and keep you up at night.

When I write a story, I just wanna tell you what's in my head. It can come from real life and then turn into fantasy, stuff just rhyming. And write about what you know. I just like to tell stories that have not been told or [told] from my perspective.

I can't say that I love writing, but I do love the satisfaction that it gives me.

We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.

I may be writing well, I may be writing poorly, but I enjoy the act of writing and sometimes when it turns out okay, I feel an elation that is incomparable.

I've quit writing screenplay [adaptations]. It's too much work. I don't look at writing a novel as work, because I only have to please myself. I have a good time sitting here by myself, thinking up situations and characters, getting them to talk - it's so satisfying. But screenwriting's different. You might think you're writing for yourself, but there are too many other people to please.

I mean it's the writing, not the being read, that excites me.

While writing a novel I almost completely stop reading books in the same sub-genre for the duration.

I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.

I like to read fiction best and I like to write fiction, too.

I think one of the reasons I'm so thrilled with writing is because it is an act of reading for me at the same time, which is why my revisions are so sustained.

People who write fiction, if they had not taken it up, might have become very successful liars.

Never believe that the fiction writing life makes sense.... It's insanity by definition.

Constant reading will pull you into a place - a mind-set, if you like the phrase - where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness.

For the entire decade of my 30s and the early part of my 40s, I didn't write a word of fiction. I just left behind a dream of my life.

This is what I love about novels - both reading them and writing them. They jump into the abyss to be with you where you are.

books have been my greatest comfort, castle-building a never-failing delight, and scribbling a very profitable amusement.

When you're writing fiction it's a heightened voice. You're trying to cast a spell, which isn't the same thing as trying to cast someone into it. You are creating a reality but it's a different sort of performance.