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The real geniuses know where their writing has to be good and where they can get away with some mediocrity.

— Dmitri Shostakovich

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More quotes by Dmitri Shostakovich

Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward.

The Power of Music (1964)

It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over.

Testimony (1979)

I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible, and if I don't succeed I consider it's my own fault.

When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.

Testimony (1979)

I live in the USSR, work actively and count naturally on the worker and peasant spectator. If I am not comprehensible to them I should be deported.

All Dmitri Shostakovich quotes →

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”

Suman Pokhrel

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

Robert Benchley

Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.

William Wordsworth Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Dmitri Shostakovich (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.