“The adjective is the enemy of the noun.”
–Voltaire

“I am a human first. People have to see that journalists are not just a body behind a microphone. Even if you have five minutes, don’t rush, let them know you care.”

– Carolyn Mungo, VP, station manager at WFAA-TV Dallas

From Chapter 1, “33 Ways Not To Screw Up Your Journalism.” https://pic.twitter.com/fguAxOjGmW

“Reporting— investigative or not—is often served by transparency. If you tell people what you’re working on, where you are, and what you’re stumped by, they’re much more likely to help you out.”

– John D. Sutter

“Before I came to Hollywood, I was a writer of short stories and novellas. I used to pace the streets of Manhattan wondering what he or she said next or what the next scene was. That’s what writing is all about.” — Ernest Lehman

“Writing is a way of dreaming out loud, and in public; even the most noble tales, if truly told, contain within them nuggets of evidence about the teller: soft spots, blind spots, weird obsessions. Wariness about these potentially embarrassing aspects and a willingness to weed them out is a deadly practice for a writer.”

-Scott Spencer

“If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin. I always write my last lines, my last paragraph, my last page first, and then I go back and work towards it. I know where I’m going. I know what my goal is. And how I get there is God’s grace.”

-Katherine Anne Porter

“If you lack confidence in setting one word after another and sense that you are stuck in a place from which you will never be set free, if you feel sure that you will never make it and were not cut out to do this, if your prose seems stillborn and you completely lack confidence, you must be a writer.”

-John McPhee

“With novels, it’s the first line that’s important. If I have that the novel comes easily. The first line determines the form of the whole novel. The first line sets the tone, the melody. If I hear the tone, the melody, then I have the book.”

–Elie Wiesel

“The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at the least, when a professional writer doesn’t do anything but write. He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks. Either write or nothing…. I find it works. Two very simple rules, a: you don’t have to write. b: you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself.

–Raymond Chandler

“If you keep working, inspiration comes.”

-Alexander Calder