Denis Johnson’s trove of quotes for writers

69 pages of ideas, observations, advice, and encouragement

In addition to being a masterful writer of short stories and novels, Denis Johnson was a collector of quotes from other writers, musicians, and artists. Thanks to Twitter/X and writer Karan Mahajan (@kmahan), I recently discovered, via a three-year-old tweet, a 69-page compilation of these quotes.

Tweet from Karan Mahajan

The document is a trove of ideas, observations, advice, and encouragement from a wide array of sources — from Chekhov to Kerouac, from Albert Einstein to Flannery O’Connor, from playwrights to bathroom-stall poets.

If you need some nuggets of inspiration from those who have gone before us, why not download the document for your own purposes?

Image: screenshot from a page of Denis Johnson’s list of writing quotes.

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Author: andrewcareaga

Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction.

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