Useful Quotes about Creative Writing

"By far the greatest thing is to be a master of metaphor.
It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others.
It is a sign of genius, for a good metaphor implies an
intuitive perception of similarity among dissimilars." --Aristotle

"Journalism is often factual but not always honest; poetry isn't always factual but must be honest." --LoVerne Brown, journalist and poet

"Did it happen? No. Is it true? Yes."--Ron Carlson on fiction.

"Flaubert said, 'Prose is architecture,' and this isn't the baroque era." --Raymond Carver

"I think poetry will save nothing from oblivion, but I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it's the home of the extraordinary, the only home." --Philip Levine (Hirsch 9)

"Let your eyes transform what appears ordinary, commonplace, into what it is, a moment in time, an observed fragment of eternity." --Philip Levine (Hirsch 11)

"Verbal passivity is a close relative of passivity of action ... 'I will change my life' means something different from 'my life is going to change.'" --Kirk Nesset

"The poet's job is to find what seems important, prominent, but not yet
poetic."--Robert Pinsky

"Fundamental accuracy is the sole morality of writing." --Ezra Pound

"Menial work at the expense of all true, ardent, creative work is a sin against the Holy Ghost." --Brenda Ueland from If You Want To Write (99)