Quotes about Essays

Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions. Votes: 6

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself. Votes: 6

I won't say ours was a tough school, but we had our own coroner. We used to write essays like: What I'm going to be if I grow up. Votes: 4

I sort of was good at writing essays. I was never very good at mathematics, and I was never very good at algebra. I loved science, but I wasn't sure of it. Votes: 4

The essays in The Great Taos Bank Robbery were my project to win a Master of Arts degree in English when I quit being a newspaper editor and went back to college. Votes: 4

In Philadelphia, I inadvertently came upon an edition of Robert Ingersoll's Essays and Lectures. This was an exciting discovery; his atheism confirmed my own belief that the horrific cruelty of the Old Testament was degrading to the human spirit. Votes: 3

In high school, my English teacher Celeste McMenamin introduced me to the great novels and Shakespeare and taught me how to write. Essays, poetry, critical analysis. Writing is a skill that was painful then but a love of mine now. Votes: 3

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make to them; a man may live long, yet get little from life. Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will - Montaigne, Essays Votes: 3

I don't like writing essays or theory. Votes: 2

The point of the essay is to change things. Votes: 2

I'm trying to put more elements of the essay into my writing. Votes: 2

Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays. Votes: 2

I write essays to clear my mind. I write fiction to open my heart. Votes: 2

I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay, rather than the novel. Votes: 2

My high-school papers, my college-application essays, read like Norman Mailer packed in a crunchy-peanut-butter sandwich. Votes: 2

To love is to believe, to hope, to know; 'Tis an essay, a taste of Heaven below! Votes: 2

I just finished writing an essay about William Maxwell, an American writer whose work I admire very much. Votes: 2

I'm not an impersonator. I've only got one voice and only do one guy and his first-person essays. Votes: 2

A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery. Votes: 2

Maybe I will write a memoir, perhaps I'll do some essays, or maybe I will write a mystery story. Votes: 2

I think the pattern of my essays is, A funny thing happened to me on my way through Finnegans Wake. Votes: 2

Drama school is fundamentally practical. I didn't write any essays, so I came out with a BA honors degree in acting. Votes: 2

I'm a disciple of Raymond Chandler, who said in his essays that there's a quality of redemption in anything that can be called art. Votes: 2

In effect I am not a novelist, but rather a failed essayist who started to write novels because he didn't know how to write essays. Votes: 2

My father was a great sympathizer of Ahad Ha'am. Every Friday night we would read Hebrew together, and often the reading was Ahad Ha'am's essays. Votes: 2

In high school, I won a prize for an essay on tuberculosis. When I got through writing the essay, I was sure I had the disease. Votes: 2

Sometimes I read reviews, and without exception I will read critical essays that are sent to me. The critical essays are interesting on their own terms. Votes: 2

People complain about my exclamation points, but I honestly think that's the way people think. I don't think people think in essays; it's one exclamation point to another. Votes: 2

A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out. Votes: 2

Oftentimes, when people don't respond to text messages or emails, I just start writing long, long in-depth essays and diatribes where characters start to appear and narrative threads begin. Votes: 2

I went on all over the States, ranting poems to enthusiastic audiences that, the week before, had been equally enthusiastic about lectures on Railway Development or the Modern Turkish Essay. Votes: 2

The essays are very solipsistic and self-absorbed, I'm totally conscious of that. To me, book writing is fun, and I basically just write about things that are entertaining to myself. Votes: 2

I'm older than my sister so I started writing first. I started writing at school. I was always top of my class in composition, essays, English Lit and all of that. Votes: 2

Cummings' career as a writer - and a painter - was as wobbly as his love life. He tried his hand at playwriting, satirical essays, and even a dance scenario for Lincoln Kirsten. Votes: 2

I'm most suspicious of scripts that have a lot of stage direction at the top of the page... sunrise over the desert and masses of... a whole essay before you get to the dialogue. Votes: 2

When topics are complex and meaty, don't create a never-ending email thread. It's amazing how much time people waste composing and reading carefully-worded essays, when a 5 minute in-person chat would resolve the whole thing. Votes: 2

I think of myself as a writer who photographs. Images, for me, can be considered poems, short stories or essays. And I've always thought the best place for my photographs was inside books of my own creation. Votes: 2

For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn't poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse. Votes: 2

What I'm exploring right now is the subject of my own mortality, It's an area that I'm curious about, and I'm researching it to see if there's a photographic essay in it for me. If images don't start to come, I'll go to something else Votes: 2

One would think that in writing about literary men and matters there would be no difficulty in finding a title for one's essay, or that any embarrassment which might arise would be from excess of material. I find this, however, far from being the case. Votes: 2

I remember when an editor at the National Geographic promised to run about a dozen of my landscape pictures from a story on the John Muir trail as an essay, but when the group of editors got together, someone said that my pictures looked like postcards Votes: 2

I can't speak for readers in general, but personally I like to read stories behind which there is some truth, something real and above all, something emotional. I don't like to read essays on literature; I don't like to read critical or rational or impersonal or cold disquisitions on subjects. Votes: 2

I've always written. There's a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother's papers were destroyed. I'd written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then. Votes: 2

I began writing early - very, very early... I was already writing short stories for the radio and selling poems to poetry and art festivals; I was involved in school plays; I wrote essays, so there was no definite moment when I said, 'Now I'm a writer.' I've always been a writer. Votes: 2

I grew up poor in crappy situations... various crappy situations. What kept me sane was reading and music. I had so many different literary tastes growing up, be it fiction like Stephen King or Piers Anthony or non-fiction like reading Hunter S. Thompson essays or reading the Beats. I was a huge fan of the Beat movement. Votes: 2

For all the power of video and film, I am not giving up my pen. I am just much more likely to try to link essays to webcasts or videos. The best way for these two media to move forward, to inform and make change, is in tandem; together they are more than the sum of their parts. Votes: 2

My cure for writer's block is to step away from the thing I'm stuck on, usually a novel, and write something totally different. Besides fiction, I write poetry, screenplays, essays and journalism. It's usually not the writing itself that I'm stuck on, but thing I'm trying to write. So I often have four or five things going at once. Votes: 2

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike. Votes: 2

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry - writing at writing. Votes: 2

Fiction and essays can create empathy for the theoretical stranger. Votes: 0

Many good poets are really essayists who write very short essays. Votes: 0

All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge. Votes: 0

I like English, and I like writing essays, and that kind of stuff. Votes: 0

You must read a lot of personal essays - you needn't reinvent the wheel. Votes: 0

For me, writing essays, prose and fiction is a great way to be self-indulgent. Votes: 0

For books, I don't read much fiction, but like travel essays and good pop-science. Votes: 0

Writers read essays and serious thinkers and serious readers... that is a small population. Votes: 0

Programming is the art of writing essays in crystal clear prose and making them executable Votes: 0

Most good essays are conversations with yourself - not just your decided thoughts but your dilemmas. Votes: 0

I love essays, but they're not always the best way to communicate to a larger audience. Votes: 0

I put a positive spin on a difficult childhood in my 10 essays. Available on Amazon.com. Votes: 0

The best essays come from the moment in which people really need to work something out. Votes: 0

If my father were still writing essays, every full-grown 'girl' would probably be transformed into a'woman'. Votes: 0

Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays Votes: 0

There are some short essays that are very grave, and most contemporary novels are lighter than air. Votes: 0

I think there is a difference between comic essays and war reporting, and people can tell that. Votes: 0

I love to run smart essays and commentary. But it doesn't replace the other kind of reporting. Votes: 0

I don't know if I have a book in me, but I'm sure I have more essays. Votes: 0

I love to run smart essays and commentary. But it doesn't replace the other kind of reporting Votes: 0

Since childhood, I wrote a lot of fiction, a lot of stories, but I most loved writing essays. Votes: 0

If there's a poster boy for the fact that all essays are written through personae, it's Crèvecoeur. Votes: 0

Angkor is perhaps the greatest of Man's essays in rectangular architecture that has yet been brought to life. Votes: 0

(Francis) Bacon's best known writings are his essays. They are loved for many reasons, such as their being so short. Votes: 0

I am waiting impatiently for the day when beleaguered, like-minded academics can order James Wolcott's collected essays for their classes. Votes: 0

I am not comfortable with abstract writing, stories that look like essays: you have to see, I need to see. Votes: 0

Seneca devoted much of his time to writing essays in praise of poverty, and in lending money at usurious rates. Votes: 0

I still have some of my old University essays, and I do still have my drawing book from primary year seven. Votes: 0

While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing. Votes: 0

Ordering is very important with essays, even if a reader doesn't read the essays or the poems in order through the book. Votes: 0

I think it's hard to have a full-time job and write fiction, but for essays, you need to be in the world. Votes: 0

Writing essays and teaching composition have helped me immensely in writing poetry, because they've forced me to focus on the structure of ideas. Votes: 0

For me, writing essays is very much about processing ideas and offering them up to the reader so that they are fully cooked. Votes: 0

How do our philosophers act? Do they not inscribe their signatures to the very essays they write on the propriety of despising glory. Votes: 0

I read Carver. Julio Cortazar. Amis's essays. Baldwin. Lorrie Moore. Capote. Saramago. Larkin. Wodehouse. Anything, anything at all, that doesn't sound like me. Votes: 0

I love writing essays and articles, so it's hard for me to resist taking assignments that inevitably pull me away from larger projects. Votes: 0

Decide for yourself what kind of works you want to create... facts, essays, poems - do you want to speak or to sing? Votes: 0

[George] Orwell's essays. It's got it all. Great writing, a worldview that I find interesting and useful, and most of it timelessly true. Votes: 0

Metaphorically these essays move as a quiet but observant coast-guard cutter among the rocks and islands up and down the littoral of our life. Votes: 0

In college I studied essays with a poet, and so I think my interpretation of the genre was always going to be a little off-kilter. Votes: 0

The essays are different because ultimately it's things I'm interested in, and I'm really just writing about myself and using those subjects as a prism. Votes: 0

Ultimately, whether we are writing posts, paragraphs, essays, arguments, memoirs, monographs or even just the Great American Tweet, writing is and should be a grand adventure. Votes: 0

I write essays first because I have a passionate relationship to the subject and second because the subject is one that people are not talking about. Votes: 0

One can imagine a world without essays. It would be a little poorer, of course, like a world without chess, but one could live in it. Votes: 0

At university level, I had an economics lecturer who used to joke that I was the only student who handed in essays on British Airways notepaper. Votes: 0

If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions; but it is always in apprenticeship and on trial. Votes: 0

To spend this particular year reading essays to Dennis Robertson as one's supervisor, and, simultaneously, enjoying membership of the group round Keynes was indeed an intellectual treat. Votes: 0

I beg your pardon: correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets. Votes: 0

I wanted to create an environment in which more than just personal essays could be represented, and in which stranger approaches to making essays could be celebrated. Votes: 0

Another benefit is that the more I blog, the more I maintain and develop a first-person voice, which translates into a much greater ease with writing personal essays. Votes: 0

I don't think there's any need to have essays advocating selfishness among human beings; I don't know what your impression has been, but some things require no further reinforcement. Votes: 0

From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have written technical essays on the logic of forgeries and on the influence of forgeries on history. Votes: 0

the wrongs of society can be more deeply impressed on a large class of readers in the form of fiction than by essays, sermons, or the facts of science. Votes: 0

For many years I have devoted articles and essays to newspapers, from the inside. So criticism of the newspapers was a topic that I practiced for a long time. Votes: 0

Every young writer, I imagine, has their first intellectual magazine, whose essays and articles are devoured all the more greedily for being slightly over one's head. Mine was First Things. Votes: 0

Shorter work - personal essays and book reviews - allow me to take a break from working on a book, which is good for the book and for its author. Votes: 0

There are some fine books and essays about that. Lewis Hyde has written about alcoholism and poets and the role that society gives its writers - encouraging them to die. Votes: 0

Most people's major life changes don't come from reading an article in the newspaper; they come from reading longer-form essays or thoughtful books, which are much more convincing and detailed. Votes: 0

One of my favorite writers is Michel de Montaigne. My wife gave me a beautiful 17th-century edition of Montaigne's essays translated by John Florio. That's probably my most precious possession. Votes: 0

I don't work on poems and essays at once. They walk on different legs, speak with different tongues, draw from different parts of the psyche. Their paces are also different. Votes: 0

If you were an actor, anybody could go on Broadway and take a George Carlin hour and do it on stage as a one man show. They're all stand alone essays. Votes: 0

My stuff is direct. Critics have compared my writing style with boxing all the way back to 1978 when my first book of essays appeared: it was compared to Muhammad Ali's style. Votes: 0

For one moment we are not failed tests and broken condoms and cheating on essays; we are crayons and lunch boxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds. Votes: 0

I consider myself an essayist and a fiction writer. In the essays, I certainly have been influenced by some of the leading science essayists. Like Loren Eiseley, Stephen Jay Gould, Lewis Thomas. Votes: 0

The age of printed pamphlets and political essays has long since been replaced by television, a distracting and absorbing medium which seems determined to entertain itself more than it informs and educates. Votes: 0

I don't really think of my essays as being about myself. I know it sounds insane, but I just don't think of them as a memoir. They're essays; they're not an autobiography. Votes: 0

Mythology is about Good VS Evil, is it not? We can pretend runes and astrology and reading tea leaves...But to whom do we pray when we are terrified? Carl Sagan's essays? Votes: 0

E.B. White's essays are the best things I've read about Maine - especially the one in which he's not sure if he can go out sailing any more in his sloop. Votes: 0

When I was in graduate school, my thesis included both poetry and essays. Influenced by the personal essays of James Baldwin and Norman Mailer, I loved the form, but pretty much stopped. Votes: 0

I tend to think of fiction as being mainly about characters and human beings and inner experience, whereas essays can be much more expository and didactic and more about subjects or ideas. Votes: 0

I've published one book before, and now I'm writing a book of essays and stories about life in Tokyo. And I have one book coming out in May in Germany, about fitness. Votes: 0

Book reviewing dates only to the eighteenth century, when, for the first time, there were so many books being printed that magazines - they were new, too - started printing essays about them. Votes: 0

I do not know but thoughts written down thus in a journal might be printed in the same form with greater advantage than if the related ones were brought together into separate essays. Votes: 0

Novels are my favorite to write and read. I do like writing personal essays, too. I'm not really a short story writer, nor do I tend to gravitate to them as a reader. Votes: 0

Although the point of blogging is that it doesn't pay, I often steal from my blog for paid publication. I've based several magazine essays on blog posts, as well as an entire book. Votes: 0

I could write another collection of personal essays from what has happened to me in the last year alone. I don't seek out my material - it finds me. I am magnetic, somehow. Votes: 0

I'm not much a TV reporter, as in someone who covers the daily machinations of the television industry, though I certainly follow it and weave it into my reviews and essays about the medium. Votes: 0

I'd written personal essays before, but never on this scale -- never so often and with such, er, honesty. (If by honesty I mean slashing my wrists and hemorrhaging all over the computer screen). Votes: 0

I thought that I wasn't an essayist because I just didn't see myself in a lot of the essays that were popular at the time. That's why I joined the poetry program in grad school. Votes: 0

At first I was blogging everyday, but I don't do that anymore. It varies; sometimes I'll write these little essays and other times political commentaries. Other times it'll just be new work that I'm doing. Votes: 0

Fourteen years in the professor dodge has taught me that one can argue ingeniously on behalf of any theory, applied to any piece of literature. This is rarely harmful, because normally no-one reads such essays. Votes: 0

Maybe someone's who's a different kind of writer [would think otherwise] - someone who'd be just as comfortable writing essays on what their novels are about. Sometimes you feel like certain novelists are like that. Votes: 0