Writing Quotes

Let at least one word of my writings impregnate the reader's heart.

While the goal of a book is to create a positive emotional experience for the reader, the goal of the opening is to set the stage, to pull the reader in.

If you can master the opening, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

What are minnows but brief flashes? And what are thoughts? And how do you capture a brief flash, even for a second?

The key to high concept is that fresh twist. Make it a big one. Wow your reader. Force her to gasp when she comes to that part in your story.

First drafts don’t have to be perfect. They just have to be written.

I will continue to write moral stories in rhymed couplets. But I should be thrice a fool if I did it for aught but my own entertainment.

One idea to a sentence is still the best advice that anyone has ever given on writing.

A watched pot never boils." It's the same with success. So? Throw that burner on HIGH and just keep on cooking. Dinner will be ready soon.

On Writing: "A multitude of improbabilities can be forgiven as long as enough plausibility has been established.

My advice to writers is this:Walk, talk, breathe, laugh, cry, fall, rise, fail, succeed, run, jump, love, hate, hide, seek, learn, work, play, feel, LIVE.Then write it down.

One, don’t wait for inspiration, just start the damned thing. Two, once you begin, keep on until the end. How do you know how the story should begin until you find out where it’s going?

You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.

If someone wanted to be a runner, you don't tell them to think about running, you tell them to run. And the same simple idea applies to writing, I hope.

I tell everyone who asks me about writing...almost everyone has an idea for a book, and some even have a great ending, but it's that 290 or so pages in between that are tough!

It's not a job but a condition.(Alan Garner on writing)

It is not lack of ability, but lack of motivation, lack of focus, and lack of self-confidence that prevents most aspiring authors from finishing what they started.

The act of reading will enrich your life.Become a lifelong learner and a reader.

I think... the most brilliant thing about being a writer is that if you don't like the way the world is, you can create your own.

Write it down now! You may never know who will read it tomorrow!

When I have written my last word, I will have taken my last breath.

‪Write only if you wish to read it again and again while falling in love with it... ‬

I do not think consciously of children [when writing] … I do know that children read me more intelligently than adults do.

There is only one secret to great writing and that's great writing.

Elegant writers depict intricacy with simplicity.

Words are a means to an end. Those who chase after them inevitably fail to reach that end.

I think the best thing about being a writer is getting to dream. It's constantly viewing life through the "what if?" lens.

If your writing fails to move the emotional needle, you are not reaching your readers.

Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words.

Words are the bones. Writing is the lungs. Reading is like breathing.

There will be pages. Lots and lots of pages. Most of the pages will have letters on them, and a vast majority of these letters will be in the Roman alphabet.

I have this idea that writing is all about divergent thinking colliding with a hurricane of emotions.

The best lie is the one that has an element of truth, so it’s good to include something real in your fiction.

Writers get ideas all day every day. The FedEx guy delivers a package from Sears and the writer is thinking how it could actually be a ticking time bomb.

The art of writing is the manipulation of words to ease the mind and free the imagination

For the writer, the process of writing a novel is like getting an advanced copy of a book you'd really like to read.

How hard can writing be? After all, most of the words are going to be 'and, ' 'the, ' and 'I, ' and 'it, ' and so on, and there's a huge number to choose from, so a lot of the work has been done for you.

An idea for a story can be anything. The sky is not the limit, the limit is beyond it.

What makes a writer successful is not money or fame (though both are nice) ... it's that in being true to her or himself, the words were able to connect to a reader's heart.

Doubt is the only reliable source of creativity.

Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.

My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vivdness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie....

This whole show vs tell concept both bewilders and challenges my mind.

Find the problem, find the story.

There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.

If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die.

When we are in love, we are convinced nobody else will do. But as time goes, others do do, and often do do, much much better.

We remember the past, live in the present, and write the future.

We all know we're going to die

CLEMENTINE: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.JOEL: I know.CLEMENTINE: What do we do?JOEL: Enjoy it.