Quotes About Writing Influences

#1. I'd say the music influences the writing - the music and rhythm of the prose - much more than the writing influences the music.

Rob Roberge

#2. I never go jogging, it makes me spill my martini.

George Burns

#3. My whole life experience feeds into my writing. I think that must be true for every writer. Clearly the Army and combat were major influences; just the same, you need to understand that many of the writers we have now couldn't load a revolver.

Gene Wolfe

#4. So the kind of boy I was, or that I was told to be, you were kind of this like half-gladiator, half-dude who, you know, was supposed to have as many girls as possible and work until your heart exploded, have no fear, you know.

Junot Diaz

#5. If you just think exclusively about what would be the best tasting or the most profitable, you're just not seeing the big picture.

Dan Barber

#6. Writing about Africa by Africans has been part of my literary apprenticeship, standing alongside works by authors such as Joseph Conrad, Joyce Cary and Graham Greene as influences.

Giles Foden

#7. The writing of history is largely a diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.

Frank Herbert

#8. Praying is talking to God. Meditating is listening.

Christopher Moore

#9. When I started out, I was definitely writing about experiences that I hadn't had yet. The songs were just based on my influences, songwriters that had written songs before me and that were more experienced and 20, 30 years older than me.

Brandi Carlile

#10. Revolutionaries are not infallible.

Tariq Ali

#11. My wife is a vegetarian. When my wife is with me, I eat vegetarian. When she's not, I eat meat. I'm just being honest.

J. B. Smoove

#12. Opinions were like assholes; everyone had one and they all stunk, so he could shove it up his hole.

K.F. Breene

#13. What you think and how you think, influences what you ink and how you ink.

Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

#14. There's not one thing in particular that influences my music, but I write about what I know. It's based in personal experience. That's not to say all the songs are biographical, because sometimes it's what I've seen in others' lives.

Holly Golightly

#15. You've saved my life all the same- even if I had something to do with it.

Michael Ende

#16. I can't wait to be a mom and a wife, and explore that phase of life. And also see how it affects and influences my song writing and creativity.

Tristan Prettyman

#17. A win would be better than a draw.

Denis Law

#18. When it comes to other people's writing, my older influences are more powerful than more recent ones, partially because I'm now more worried that I'll suddenly accidentally steal something from another writer.

Elizabeth McCracken

#19. Being in front of the camera, you never got to see the whole process from the conception of the script all the way through to the filming process.

Justin Berfield

#20. I was going to go to college and graduate and move to New York and do the Broadway thing. That's where a lot of my influences vocally and writing come from. Then I did some covers, and towards the end of college, I saw it was a path I could take. I wrote more pop music.

Sam Tsui

#21. When I go and write with other artists - a lot of the time it's with them - it's like a therapy session almost. I ask them what they're listening to and what they're going through and what their influences are and I try to get inside of their head and step into their shoes for a second.

Bonnie McKee

#22. I believe that happiness is something we create

Jennifer Nettles

#23. I suppose more than anything, it's the way of life in this part of the country that influences my writing. In Eastern North Carolina, with the exception of Wilmington, most people live in small towns.

Nicholas Sparks

#24. Most everything influences my work. Working in a used bookstore. Going for walks in the woods and peering at mushrooms. Writing reviews. Coming from frumpy, grumpy, faded-at-the-knees Winnipeg.

Ariel Gordon

#25. My goal is to think of nothing when I'm writing a song because too many influences could sabotage a potentially amazing song.

Ricky Martin

#26. I look at my first books and am glad they weren't published ... You start writing by imitating your heroes, then you keep the heart of that worship in your work. As time goes by, you get other influences and find your own voice.

Markus Zusak

#27. Originality is little more
than the fine blending of influences.

Teju Cole

#28. We achieve originality of style not by avoiding the influences of others but by blending them into a combination that has not been heard before.

Scott Norton

#29. But when you have so save the world you cannot think of one person, you see, because one person is a part of that world.

Terry Pratchett

#30. I'm still kind of a hapless character in my everyday life. But when it comes to the writing, my influences are very old influences. I love American music of absolutely all stripes, including show tunes, advertising jingles, theme tunes from quiz shows, all kinds of American music.

Nick Lowe

#31. I am writing from the heart and having a fresh approach to things. We [Theocracy] are obviously not trying to musically re-invent the wheel here, and you can certainly hear our influences, but we also don't sound like a copycat of any one band.

Matt Smith

#32. In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are both massively supportive and always have been of my career.

Tea Obreht

#33. When I try to explain to people the big influences in my life, or at least when I first started, the most important ones were my friends who were also writing songs and were typically four or five years older than me.

Conor Oberst

#34. I know you're supposed to hide your influences, but I suppose I see writing as riffing, really, about whatever you have been reading or thinking about that day or that week.

Steve Toltz

#35. As long as your determination is at least as long as the the road you travel, you will definitely reach your destination!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

#36. During the writing process, I tend not to listen to too much music. I obviously wear a lot of influences on my sleeve, but if I was listening to too many records, I would turn into too much of a monkey.

Jay Reatard

#37. Some people might be surprised that 'Rambo's creator has a doctorate in American literature. One of my influences is Henry James, whose major theme is awareness. Whether I'm writing about military personnel, law enforcement, or De Quincey, the persistent theme is paying attention in a hostile world.

David Morrell

#38. But the more people we love and the more deeply we love them, the more vulnerable we are to loss and grief and loneliness.

Dean Koontz