Horton Foote Quotes

Something people say about acting is that acting is listening. But I think that writing is listening, too. That you really have to listen to what are they saying and what they're communicating to you. And so, a lot of it is just getting stuff down.

To be a writer you should read, write and talk to people, hear their knowledge, hear their problems. Be a good listener. The rest will come.

I look at you and I write down what I hear.

I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.

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

I never took a photograph. Instead, I became a good listener.

I love to write and to get to know the people who are listening.

To me, the newspaper business was a way to learn about life and how things worked in the real world and how people spoke. You learn all the skills - you learn to listen, you learn to take notes - everything you use later as a novelist was valuable training in the newspaper world. But I always wanted to write novels.

I think the whole glory of writing lies in the fact that it forces us out of ourselves and into the lives of others.

Personally there is first: imagination; second: the act of writing - and third: the act/act of vocalizing.

Write. Write every day. Write honestly. Write something that doesn’t exist, and you wish did. Read. Learn. Study. Watch people. Listen to what they say, listen to how they say it and listen to what they do not say. Surprise yourself. Scare yourself.

There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.

Words, yes, formulating things, creating something from your heart, it is something very necessary, yes.

Eavesdrop and write it down from memory - gives you a stronger sense of how people talk and what their concerns are. I love to eavesdrop!

Reading taught me how to write.

When you're writing, you are robbed of your delivery.

I often think that the prime directive for me as a teacher of writing is akin to that for a physician, which is this: do no harm.

The written word is the basic of everything. Most important, the idea, and after that, the dialogue. You can rehash the dialogue as you go along, it 's disgraceful to have to do this, but now and again you have no choice.

I hope to continue writing. I hope to continue teaching.

Medicine and writing are natural companions.

All we need to do, reader or writer, from first line to final page, is be as open as a book, and be alive to the life in language - on all its levels.

The key to acting has much more to do with listening than with talking.

I love to write.

I don't have a great imagination to share something with you that you don't know, so it's about interpreting things - a dialogue.

I think if you can get people to laugh, you can get people to listen.