Writing Quotes

A book is simply the container of an idea-like a bottle; what is inside the book is what matters.

You can't be a good writer without being a good thinker.

When I write I have no loyalty except to historical truth as I see it and care no more about British achievements and mistakes than any other.

If you don't have a sensation of apprehension when you set out to find a story and a swagger when you sit down to write it, you are in the wrong business.

I am putting together a secular bible. My Genesis is when the apple falls on Newton's head.

When a woman writes you a poem, she spends time with the gods on your behalf.

I'm learning more about life when I'm playing too, and writing music. I'm learning more about life, the connection.

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.

Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.

As I tell my intro creative writing students, after reading someone you love, wait at least an hour before starting to write.

I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.

Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

Writing well means never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.'

Writing and reading is to me synonymous with existing.

Writing well is at one and the same time good thinking, good feeling, and good expression; it is having wit, soul, and taste, all together.

I was in lots of dodgy bands growing up and I always fancied myself in a band. But, you know, I was rubbish at writing music. So maybe one day I'll play a rock star, or punk rocker.

All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another.

I'd always loved poetry and I'd always loved writing music and composing music, but I hadn't thought of putting the two together until around that time.

Scriptures - The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.

Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.

Sometimes writing songs is like waiting for deliveries.

Don't look at the world with your hands in your pockets. To write about it you have to reach out and touch it.

To read a book, to think it over, and to write out notes is a useful exercise; a book which will not repay some hard thought is not worth publishing.

If more people could read, write, and comprehend, we could be much closer to solving so many of the other problems our country faces today.

Although I enjoyed writing Film Music it was always a means to an end, in that it enabled me to keep a wife and family and write my classical music, which has always been my passion.

I wish I could be like Shaw who once read a bad review of one of his plays, called the critic and said: 'I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me.'

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk-away from any open flames-to remind yourself that if you don't write daily, you will get rusty.

It's impossible to write about Native life without humor-that's how people maintain sanity.

Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don't think an artist can ever be happy.

Whenever I write for hotel reservations, I always enclose a set of rules I have made for the hotels.

To write a blues song is to regiment riots and pluck gems from graves.

Once the grammar has been learned, writing is simply talking on paper and in time learning what not to say.

To be understood a writer has to explain almost everything.

The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.

She can't even chew gum and walk in a straight line, let alone write a book.

If I had a girlfriend I would write her letters instead of using Twitter.

The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang.

When I'm my own editor, there's very little difference between the first draft and the final. I write what feels right to begin with. I rarely make any major changes.

Anyone can write one book: even politicians do it. Starting a second book reveals an intention to be a professional writer.

So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job.

Insecurity wants us to keep track of our failures; grace doesn't even write them down.

I write a lot of songs people don't hear. I really just enjoy the process. I finish 'em all. I don't think there's a whole lot of difference between the bad ones and the good ones.

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.

I love being an author. I love actual writing, and I love communicating with children. And it keeps me young.

Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.

I stayed away from drugs, I never smoked a pipe. When I wanna get high, I smoke the mic. I never did white lines, I only write lines, and I ain't sniffin' nothing but the vapors from hype rhymes.

Storytelling is my currency. It's my only worth. The only thing of value I have in this life is my ability to tell a story, whether in print, orating, writing it down or having people acting it out.

Why am I compelled to write? Because the writing saves me from this complacency I fear. Because I have no choice.

Consider the way of the scientists rather than the way of an advertising agent for a new soap.

A man is in no danger so long as he talks his love; but to write it is to impale himself on his own pothooks.