E. L. Doctorow Quotes

It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
E. L. Doctorow

Car, Night, Whole

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.
E. L. Doctorow

Writing, Write, Talking

Like art and politics, gangsterism is a very important avenue of assimilation into society.
E. L. Doctorow

Politics, Art, Society

There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there's only narrative.
E. L. Doctorow

Longer, Fiction, Narrative

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
E. L. Doctorow

Writing, Acceptable, Socially

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
E. L. Doctorow

Good, Feeling, Writing

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
E. L. Doctorow

Nothing, Writing, Learn

In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment.
E. L. Doctorow

Life, Person, Become

A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to.
E. L. Doctorow

Work, Someone, May

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.
E. L. Doctorow

History, End, Why

I can walk into a bookstore and hand over my credit card and they don't know who the hell I am. Maybe that says something about bookstore clerks.
E. L. Doctorow

Hell, Walk, Hand

I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority.
E. L. Doctorow

Feeling, Lost, Culture

I thought I would lose, so I didn't prepare a speech.
E. L. Doctorow

Thought, Lose, Speech

I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.
E. L. Doctorow

Experience, Bad, Try

Movies are too literal.
E. L. Doctorow

Movies, Literal

Somewhere along the line the rhythms and tonalities of music elided in my brain with the sounds that words make and the rhythm that sentences have.
E. L. Doctorow

Music, Brain, Words

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.
E. L. Doctorow

Tell, Felt, Happened

The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.
E. L. Doctorow

Reason, Writer, Writers

Things that appear on the front page of the newspaper as 'fact' are far more dangerous than the games played by a novelist, and can lead to wars.
E. L. Doctorow

Fact, Far, Dangerous

We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.
E. L. Doctorow

Raw, Attracted, Edges

When I'm writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences.
E. L. Doctorow

Writing, Through, Off

When you're working well, you don't do research. Whatever you need comes to you.
E. L. Doctorow

Working, Whatever, Research

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.
E. L. Doctorow

Time, Yourself, Book

Writing is immensely difficult. The short forms especially.
E. L. Doctorow

Writing, Short, Difficult

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
E. L. Doctorow

Writing, Night, Whole

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Author

Born: January 6, 1931

Links

Find on Amazon: E. L. Doctorow

Cite this Page: Citation

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