Cyril Connolly Quotes

The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence.

If you want to be a good writer, be the best writer in the world. That's what I've done.

I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.

Of course, there are those critics - New York critics as a rule - who say, 'Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it's good but then she's a natural writer.' Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

My job is to put words together and tell a story. If that doesn't work for you, it's not a war crime.

By all means, let us study the great writers of the past for their own sakes, but let us study them for our guidance: that we, in our turn, having (it is to be hoped) something to say in our span of time, say it worthily, not dwindling out the large utterance of Shakespeare or of Burke.

Mediocrity is now, as formerly, dangerous, commonly fatal, to the poet; but among even the successful writers of prose, those who rise sensibly above it are the very rarest exceptions.

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

All fiction becomes autobiographical when the author has true talent.

I write poetry anyway and have for years and years. For me, putting fiction and poetry together is like the best of both worlds.

You become a great writer by writing.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

Somebody said writing is easy, you just sit down at your typewriter and open a vein. It depends on the book. Some, I have to do quite a lot of research, which I like. Others are much closer to me.

Whenever I'm writing a book, small details from my life always creep in.

Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.

Robert Ludlum, all of them, write the absolute best they can. You can't tone it down. You just do what you do, and if it comes out literary, so be it.

The elegance and the quality - the talent is always in the literature. I start with the word and I base everything on that. It doesn't make any difference to me.

I can't change overnight into a serious literary author. You can't compare apples to oranges. William Faulkner was a great literary genius. I am not.

As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged down in it.

I know it may sound silly, but I think my short stories have a life and identity of their own. They crop up in all sorts of places.

I mean, if you lined up 100 writers, you'd get 100 different ways in which they write. There's no right way or wrong way to do it; it's whatever your process is.

You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well.

When I started writing it was kind of hard getting people to do my stuff. They' say they couldn't do my style.

The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.

You know how it is with writing. You just write what you want to write. There's no way to predict what is good or bad. You just do what you think is funny, and either it works or you're finished. It's impossible to predict anything.