The Washington Post’s neologism contest winners.

02 Dec, 2019

I came across this today and broke up laughing. These are seriously clever! Thanks to the Washington Post. I wasn't aware of their neologism contest, but I am now! Read and enjoy. Pass it along.

The Washington Post’s neologism contest winners.

December 2, 2019June 5, 2026

I came across this today and broke up laughing. These are seriously clever! Thanks to the Washington Post. I wasn’t aware of Read More...

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

Joseph Conrad

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

Edward Albee

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.

Christopher Hampton

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

Mickey Spillane

If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.

William C. Gault

It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.

Bob Dylan

I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has just put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

Anton Chekhov

I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until I have a solid sense of how that ending sounds and feels. You have to know what your voice sounds like at the end of the story, because it tells you how to sound when you begin.

John Irving

Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.

Stephen King

A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.

Robert McKee

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.

Michael Burke

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

Raymond Chandler

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

Biography should be written by an acute enemy.

Arthur Balfour

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.

Truman Capote Quote

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.