Deborah Brodie is a book editor who has made a sideline occupation of collecting quotes about writing and creativity. The 627 "best" appear in this pretty little volume, Writing Changes Everything, accompanied by charming illustrations. At turns witty and pensive and contradictory, these literary nuggets come from unlikely sources such as Rudolf Nureyev, Morrissey, Albert Einstein, and Satchel Paige. The quotes that sing the clearest come from expected authorities; among them are Mark Twain ("The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning-bug."), Samuel Johnson ("Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out."), Iris Murdoch ("Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck."), and Erica Jong ("We make up the ocean--then fall in. But we also write the life raft.").
This inspiring and lively book brings together novelists, short-story writers, biographers, playwrights, and poets, along with literary agents, editors and publishers, all sounding off on writing and the creative life. Witty, cranky, wise, jubilant, and eminently repeatable, these quotations will surprise and delight anyone who loves books and writing.
Finalist of 2010 Indie Book Awards
Honorable Mention of 2010 Green Book Festival
Recommended Reading in the Spring 2011 issue of University of Texas McCombs School of Business Magazine
