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Raymond Chandler Quotes

Raymond Chandler quotes about writing

American Writer July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959

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Quotes

Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know. Raymond Chandler
Best putdown of a copy editor ever award goes to Raymond Chandler, who, in a 1947 letter to the editor of the Atlantic Monthly, wrote: "By the way, would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax... Raymond Chandler
I have a sense of exile from thought, a nostalgia of the quiet room and balanced mind. I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine. Raymond Chandler
Most critical writing is drivel and half of it is dishonest. It is a short cut to oblivion, anyway. Thinking in terms of ideas destroys the power to think in terms of emotions and sensations. Raymond Chandler
James Cain – faugh! Everything he touches smells like a billygoat. He is every kind of writer I detest, a faux naf, a Proust in greasy overalls, a dirty little boy with a piece of chalk and a board fence and nobody looking. Such people are the offal of literature, not because they write about dirty things, but because they do it in a dirty way. Nothing hard and clean and cold and ventilated. A brothel with a smell of cheap scent in the front parlor and a bucket of slops at the back door.... Raymond Chandler
The realistic style is easy to abuse: from haste, from lack of awareness, from inability to bridge the chasm that lies between what a writer would like to be able to say and what he actually knows how to say. It is easy to fake; brutality is not strength, flipness is not wit, edge-of-the-chair writing can be as boring as flat writing; dalliance with promiscuous blondes can be very dull stuff when described by goaty young men with no other purpose in mind than to describe dalliance with... Raymond Chandler
The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time. Raymond Chandler
Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic. Raymond Chandler
Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say. Raymond Chandler
The most durable thing in writing isstyle. It is a projection of personality and you haveto have a personality before you can project it. Itis the product of emotion and perception. Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler quote: "The challenge is to write about real things magically."
The challenge is to write about real things magically. Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler quote: "The moment a man sets his thoughts down on paper, however..."
The moment a man sets his thoughts down on paper, however secretly, he is in a sense writing for publication. Raymond Chandler
The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them. Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler quote: "The actual writing is what you live for. The rest is something..."
The actual writing is what you live for. The rest is something you have to get through in order to arrive at the point. Raymond Chandler

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