A COLLECTION OF GOOD WORDS
写作
Writing
If I had a plot that was all set in advance, why would I want go through the agony of writing the novel? A novel is a kind of exploration and discovery, for me at any rate.
如果我有一个预先设定好的情节，我为什么要经历写小说的痛苦呢?小说至少对我来说是一种探索和发现。
I think the hardest part of writing is revising. And by that I mean the following: A novelist has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it.
我认为写作最难的部分是修改。我的意思是这样的:小说家必须先创作出一块大理石，然后再把它凿开，才能找到大理石中的人物。
Heartbreak can definitely give you a deeper sensibility for writing songs. I drew on a lot of heartbreak when I was writing my first album, I didn't mean to but I just did.
心碎绝对能让你对写歌有更深的感受。我在写我的第一张专辑的时候画了很多令人心碎的东西，我不是故意的，但我就是这么做了。
The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.
我唯一适合做的就是当一名作家，而这种想法完全建立在我的怀疑之上:我永远不适合真正的工作，写作不需要任何条件。
I am trying to make clear through my writing something which I believe: that biography- history in general- can be literature in the deepest and highest sense of that term.
我试图通过我的写作来阐明我所相信的东西:传记——一般来说是历史——可以是文学中最深刻、最高意义上的文学。
It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming of themselves like grass.
当我发现故事书是由人写的，书并不是自然奇观，而是像草一样自己生长出来的时候，我感到既震惊又失望。
The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.
作家写作是为了教育自己，了解自己，满足自己;发表他的想法，虽然带来了满足感，但却令人好奇地扫兴。
If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter while you are writing than while you are hanging out with your pals or in any other line of work.
如果你在生活中专注于自律，那么你在写作时就会比在和朋友一起玩或从事其他工作时更聪明。
It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.
艺术家的天性就是过分在意别人对他的评价。文学作品中到处都是一些人的残迹，他们对他人的观点有着超越理性的看法。
Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.
把我从那些说他们的生活方式不重要的作家那里解救出来。我不确定一个坏人能写一本好书，如果艺术不能让我们变得更好，那么它到底是为了什么。
I write letters to my right brain all the time. They're just little notes. And right brain, who likes to get little notes from me, will often come through within a day or two.
我总是给我的右脑写信。它们只是小纸条。右脑，喜欢从我这里得到小纸条，通常会在一两天内完成。
When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories, then they'd turn into novels. I was biased toward music.
当我第一次开始写作时，是通过音乐。我会想出一些歌曲的创意，然后把它们变成故事，再把它们变成小说。我对音乐有偏见。
KEEP EXPLORING
沿着这个主题，再读几句。
I get a fine warm feeling when I'm doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much negated by the pain of getting started each day. Let's face it, writing is hell.
当我做得很好的时候，我有一种很好的温暖的感觉，但是这种快乐被每天开始的痛苦抵消了。让我们面对现实吧，写作是地狱。
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing.
如果你死后不会被遗忘，要么写一些值得读的东西，要么做一些值得写的事情。
A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
鸟唱歌不是因为它有答案，而是因为它有一首歌。
Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.
写小说使我对人的一生中未知的东西产生了一种持久的敬意，让我有了一种去哪里寻找线索、如何追随、如何联系的感觉，在错综复杂的世界中找到一条清晰的线。
A work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.
一件艺术品永远不会完成。它只是被遗弃了。
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
别告诉我月亮在发光;让我看看碎玻璃上的闪光。