About Writing Quotes

A writer lives, at best, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all.

I have never met an author who was sorry he or she wrote a book. They are only sorry they did not write it sooner.

You've got to write badly. If you write badly at least you've got something to rewrite. If you're scared to write badly, then you've got nothing.

All writing is an act of self-exploration. Even a grocery list says something about you; how much more does a novel say?

If you don't allow yourself the possibility of writing something very, very bad, it would be hard to write something very good.

Moving around is good for creativity: the next line of dialogue that you desperately need may well be waiting in the back of the refrigerator or half a mile along your favorite walk.

Writing is physical work. It's sweaty work. You just can't will yourself to become a good writer. You really have to work at it.

If you're a voracious reader and you write something that you want to read, odds are other people will want to read it, too.

Any room where you feel a good vibe is a good place to write.

As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next.

Writing is not a genteel profession. It's quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty.

I never really saw myself as writing science fiction anyway.

I think my dyslexia was a vital part of my development because my inability to read and write meant that I had to find knowledge elsewhere so I looked to the cinema.

Don't write about a character. Become that character, and then write your story.

Those who tell you it's tough at the top have never been at the bottom.

I find I always have to write something on a steamed mirror.

I have never separated the writing of poetry from prayer. I have grown up believing it is a vocation, a religious vocation.

I have only one loyalty - to my writing. I never wanted to be the head of a studio or a producer.

Engrave this in your brain: EVERY WRITER GETS REJECTED. You will be no different.

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

Never throw up on an editor.

Experience as much as you can and absorb a lot of reality. Otherwise, your writing will have the force of a Wiffle ball.

I can't help but to write, I have a inner need for it. If I'm not in the middle of some literary project, I'm utterly lost, unhappy and distressed. As soon as I get started, I calm down.

If you can write it, I can be it.

If the noun is good and the verb is strong, you almost never need an adjective.

You don't need to wait for inspiration to write. It's easier to be inspired while writing that while not writing.

Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork - reading, writing, thinking - can.

Writing is the passageway, the entrance, the exit, the dwelling place of the other in me.

I like to write songs about what's happening, what I see around me and what I hear. Everyday life. Someone may be talking to me and I may take it from that.

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

But if writing about people who are not yourself is illegitimate, then the only legitimate work is autobiography; and as a reader and a citizen, I don’t want to live in that world.

If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.

It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them.

That's the horrible thing starting out, you get distracted a lot because anything is easier than writing. It's just the same enemy - blank paper.

We write out of revenge against reality, to dream and enter the lives of others.

Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn't matter.

Long patience and application saturated with your heart's blood-you will either write or you will not-and the only way to find out whether you will or not is to try.

Write for the right reasons - i.e. yourself.

... And the only way to find that honesty is to not overthink it. For your writing to come alive--to be multi-dimensional--you must barter away some control.

Plot and character are virtually the same thing.

Only self-educated is educated. Others are merely taught.

Whether a character in your novel is full of choler, bile, phlegm, blood or plain old buffalo chips, the fire of life is in there, too, as long as that character lives.

To say that I enjoyed writing... is like saying I enjoy having fingers and toes. It's difficult to imagine life without them.

I cannot write long books; I leave that for those who have nothing to say.

Editing might be a bloody trade. But knives aren't the exclusive property of butchers. Surgeons use them too.

I drink coffee. Without coffee, I probably couldnt write.

Don't think and then write it down. Think on paper.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.

Practise, practise, practise writing. Writing is a craft that requires both talent and acquired skills. You learn by doing, by making mistakes and then seeing where you went wrong.