Motivational Quotes

Writing

She was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same-you couldn't just soak it up then squeeze it out again.

- David Nicholls

Best Quotes about Writing

An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do.

W. Somerset Maugham

The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.

Russell Baker

If the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it - the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.

Ann Radcliffe

She was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same-you couldn't just soak it up then squeeze it out again.

David Nicholls

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

Edwin Schlossberg

Be generous, be delicate, and always pursue the prize.

Henry James

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Ronald Reagan

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say'infinitely'when you mean'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

C. S. Lewis

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worries and only half the royalties.

Agatha Christie

10.

There are a lot of people who can't write and maybe shouldn't write.

Sarah Hepola

11.

I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.

Joan Didion

12.

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

Charles de Montesquieu

13.

After being Turned Down by numerous Publishers, he had decided to write for Posterity.

George Ade

14.

Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.

Thomas Berger

15.

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Stephen King

16.

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

George Orwell

17.

A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to.

Tom Bissell

18.

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.

John Ruskin

19.

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it.

Benjamin Disraeli

20.

Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing.

Heather Armstrong

21.

I write because I'm afraid to say some things out loud.

Real Live Preacher

22.

Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

23.

Journalism is just a gun. It's only got one bullet in it, but if you aim right, that's all you need. Aim it right and you can blow a kneecap off the world.

Warren Ellis

24.

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.

Peter De Vries

25.

You ask me why I do not write something....I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.

Florence Nightingale

26.

It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Robert Benchley

27.

No letter from a lover is ever more welcome, brings more joy, than a publisher's expression of interest does to a new author!

Judith Brocklehurst

28.

There's always something to write about. If there's not then you need to live life more aggressively.

Min Kim

29.

People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.

W. Somerset Maugham

30.

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.

Jules Renard

31.

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

Thomas Mann

32.

No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft.

H. G. Wells

33.

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long.

Leonard Bernstein

34.

Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. ItÆs the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors.

Rhys Alexander

35.

See things as they are and write about them. DonÆt waste your creative energy trying to make things up. Even if you are writing fiction, write the things you see and know.

Real Live Preacher

36.

Good writing takes more than just time; it wants your best moments and the best of you.

Real Live Preacher

37.

About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.

Josh Billings

38.

Even writers need relief from words.

Sarah Vowell

39.

Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try.

Fran Lebowitz

40.

Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard.

Daphne du Maurier

41.

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.

W. Somerset Maugham

42.

All a good letter has to do is make you feel special.

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata

43.

Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.

Katherine Paterson

44.

This is the sixth book I've written, which isn't bad for a guy who's only read two.

George Burns

45.

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

Stephen King

46.

There is nothing to write about, you say. Well then, write and let me know just this - that there is nothing to write about; or tell me in the good old style if you are well. That's right. I am quite well.

Pliny the Younger

47.

Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

Samuel Johnson

48.

It's not about the writing. It's about the feelings behind the words.

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata

49.

A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

Junot Diaz

50.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

George Orwell