Ali Smith Quotes

I think of myself as a writer as much as I think of myself as a linguist and an academic. I really enjoy writing - playing with language and getting just the right metaphor.

Writing is more about imagination than anything else. I fell in love with words. I fell in love with storytelling.

In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature.

I read mostly poetry.

I like the challenge of creating a world with only sentences.

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.

Some people read. I like to put words together.

The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man

Writers are storytellers. So are readers.

Fiction is a house with many stately mansions, but also one in which it is wise, at least sometimes, to swing from the chandeliers.

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

When you're telling stories, you are actually trying to illuminate some portion of the truth in an artful way. The story may immediately seem to be a lie, but it's like an impressionistic painting - you see the light and the color better than you would with a photo-realistic piece.

Reading taught me how to write.

Symbols are the imaginative signposts of life.

I try not to be overly literal. When I'm writing songs, I write down a lot of words, and then I try to simplify it. I like to give people hints or words that make visual pictures for them.

Literature is the question minus the answer.

Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings.

All poetry is an ordered voice, one which tries to tell you about a vision in the un-visionary language of farm, city, and love.

Words are but pictures of our thoughts.

I've always loved rhyming. I love language.

Words are the basic tools, if you are a writer.

Writers are the ones who figure out how to put their observations into words.

I love writing different things.

There's something magical about the idea that you can write something down and someone else can read it. I'm still mildly agog about that.

I love playing with words and texture.