1. Anne Lamott from her book Bird by Bird

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.”

 2. Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth

“Try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.”

3. Donna Tartt, Pullitzer Prize winner and author of The Goldfinch

“Storytelling and elegant style don’t always go hand in hand.”

4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, acclaimed novelist, short story writer and speaker

5. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things 

“Creativity itself doesn’t care at all about results – the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless.”

6. Tina Fey, comedy writer and author of Bossy Pants

7. Kurt Vonnegut, author of Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five

“To practice any art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

8. Diane Ackerman, author and poet

9. Judy Blume, author of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. 

“Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.”

10. Joan Didion, author and essayist

11. Amy Poehler, comedy writer and author of Yes Please

12. Anne Lamott from her book Bird by Bird

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

13. Nora Ephron, journalist, essayist, playwright, novelist, all around ah-mazing creative force 

14. Jim Thompson, author and screenwriter 

“There is only one plot—things are not what they seem.”

15. James Baldwin, author of Giavanni’s Room

16. Joan Didion from her book Slouching Towards Bethlehem 

“I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be.”

17. Ray Bradbury, American science-fiction author 

“Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.”

18. Alice Munro, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 

19. Raymond Carver, poet and novelist, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

“You’ve got to work with your mistakes until they look intended.”

20. Mark Twain, American humorist and writer 

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Ha!

21. Margaret Atwood, acclaimed novelist, poet, essayist and environmental activist 

22. Zadie Smith

“Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.”

23. Jeanette Winterson, author of Written on the Body and Gut Symmetries 

“If you continually write and read yourself as a fiction, you can change what’s crushing you.”

24. Ray Bradbury

“To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that god ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

25. Nora Ephron, Wellesley College Commencement Address, 1996

“Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find som away to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.”

The last two may have left me with a tear in one eye. Leave me with some of your favorite quotes on writing and life below in the comments.

TTYW,

Lisi

The post Writers Musing appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

WARNING: DO NOT READ CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS WHILE WRITING A BOOK THAT REQUIRES JOURNAL ENTRIES.

Why? The voices are starting to blend. Below are ten quotes. Some from celebs and some from the Pretenders. Can you tell them apart?

These brief character descriptions should help.

Sheridan Spencer
Age: 14
Passion: Actress of the highest order.
Goal: To become a future star of the screen, including but not limited to; TV, film, computer, and tablet.

Andrew Duffy
Age: 14
Passion: Basketball.
Goal: Make Nobel High’s Varsity team. Then dominate.

Lily Bader-Huffman
Age: 14.5
Passion: Andrew Duffy.
Goal: Fit in at Noble High so I never have to be home schooled again.

Vanessa Riley
Age: Almost 15
Passion: Being the best.
Goal: Keep my parents from getting divorced. Win more awards. Get better grades than Lily. Steal Blake away from Lily. Have more goals than anyone else.

Jagger
Age: My birth certificate says 14 but I am emancipated from my parents so I seem more like 18.
Passion: I don’t have time for passion.
Goal: Survival.

1. “Confidence is key. Sometimes, you need to look like you’re confident even when you’re not.”
Who said it? Sheridan Spencer or Vanessa Hudgens.

2. “I’m not trying to be famous at all.”
Who said it? Jagger or Zac Efron.

3. “I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.”
Who said it? Taylor Swift or Vanessa Riley.

4. “I’m ready to stray from my comfort zone and play ‘down and out.’”
Who said it? Sheridan or Vanessa Hudgens.

5. “The grand scale of it all made me feel tiny. So pure and unfettered.”
Who said it? Lily or Taylor Swift.

6. “I think you have to be cool to be a good flirt, and I don’t think I’m very cool.”
Who said it? Harry Styles or Andrew Duffy.

7. “I know my flaws before other people point them out to me.”
Who said it? Lily Bader-Huffman or Taylor Swift.

8. “I am a lot of things but lazy isn’t one of them.”
Who said it? Vanessa Riley or Justin Bieber

9. “I can’t wait for life to get back to normal.”
Who said it? Duffy or Harry Styles

10. “The news was a sucker punch to the heart.”
Who said it? Selena Gomez or Vanessa Riley.

I’ll post the answers Friday on my Facebook page.

TTYW,

Lisi

The post ROCK THE QUOTE appeared first on Lisi Harrison.