Mark Twain Quotes

No matter how I do this, my best songs have profanity in them.

I think too many people edit themselves way too soon. There's plenty of time to edit, and it is a crucial part of it all, too.

… most censorship took place in the heads of writers, and what the writers failed to cut usually got filtered out by editors in publishing houses.

I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's good. If it doesn't, that's too bad.

It's not that, living in Pakistan, I feel an enormous constraint on how I can write and what I can say; rather, I recognize that one has to navigate these things... Am I aware of things that one could say that would be risky or that could be dangerous? Certainly I'm aware of those things.

As a writer, I think the greatest danger would be self-censorship.

I had a column in high school for our school newspaper. I enjoy writing.

I would say, number one, don't worry about getting published. Just write. Number two, just write. Three is make sure you read.

When people censor themselves they're just as likely to get rid of the good bits as the bad bits.

I've been waiting for someone to sign the permission slip for me to write about sex. In the meantime, I've written about sex in all my books anyway.

Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words.

Throughout much of history, women writers have capitulated to male standards, and have paid too much heed to what Virginia Woolf calls "the angel in the house." She is that little ghost who sits on one's shoulder while one writes and whispers, "Be nice, don't say anything that will embarrass the family, don't say anything your man will disapprove of ..." [ellipsis in original] The "angel in the house" castrates one's creativity because it deprives one of essential honesty, and many women writers have yet to win the freedom to be honest with themselves.

Such expression is impossible in a cramped atmosphere. As I have no desire to offer civil disobedience I cannot write freely. As the author of satyagraha I cannot, consistently with my profession, suppress the vital part of myself for the sake of being able to write on permissible subjects. ... It would be like dealing with the trunk without the head.

Poetry is everywhere; it just needs editing.

Writers turn dreams into print.

It's botherin' me, man. You know, you can't say this, you can't say that, I'm like, well, how am I gonna talk about the world? You know? I mean I need to talk about something to you all, can I - can I do it? Can I talk to y'all? I mean, I hope the kids are in bed, you know, because I got to talk, y'all.

I suppose maybe [Wilson] would be a better person if he were able to censor himself, but then he wouldn't be as interesting.

It's exciting to watch people do and write and say what they feel like doing, writing and saying.

To be a writer, open your heart. Keep it open. You can't be a writer with a closed heart.

The editor of a newspaper cannot be independent, but must work with one hand tied behind him by party and patrons, and be content to utter only half or two-thirds of his mind . writers of all kinds are manacled servants of the public. We write frankly and fearlessly, but then we "modify" before we print.

The best writing is certainly when you are in love

No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published.

I write in order to belong.

Everyone is free to write and say whatever he likes, without any restrictions.

I cross out words so you will see them more