Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Writing Quotes, Barton Fink Edition


I'm a writer, you monsters, I create! I create for a living, I'm a creator! I am a creator! (points at head) This, this is my uniform! This is how I service common man!

-Barton Fink, from the eponymous movie

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."

- Ernest Hemingway

"Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile...a stain upon the silence."

- Samuel Beckett

From the Creative Screenwriting Weekly Newsletter.

7 comments:

Randal Graves said...

But the writing? I don't know, an NBA championship this June would be pretty swanky, too.

BeckEye said...

When I quit my job, I'm going to yell, "I'm a writer, you monsters!" Followed, of course, by "Sic semper tyrannis," when I unload a stream of staples at my boss.

Cormac Brown said...

Randal,

If they stay healthy and Shaq can stay fresh...well, this year looks better than any of them.

Becky Wilkes Booth,

Today is as good as any, and you certainly have the chops. I don't know why Gawker, Defamer or Gothamist hasn't given you the lead column space and editorial duties. Hell, I'd actually admit to reading a tabloid if you took over one.

Freida Bee said...

I love that Hemingway quote and I understand it only viscerally, which exemplifies its meaning, I think.

Cormac Brown said...

Freida,

Absolutely.

Gifted Typist said...

why do these quotes make me want to slit my wrists

Cormac Brown said...

Gifted,

Because sometimes we have to remind the world that writers and storytellers are very, very important. Slitting your wrists is not an option, writing and overcoming is.