Writing Quotes

The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.

I can't explain inspiration. A writer is either compelled to write or not. And if I waited for inspiration I wouldn't really be a writer.

I always start out with an idea, even a boring idea, that becomes a question I don't have answers to.

A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff.

I've always been drawn to writing historical characters. The best stories are the ones you find in history.

I'm never sure if I'll ever write another song, what the song will be about and if what initially sparked the beginning of a song might complete it.

Don't write about what you know - write about what you're interested in. Don't write about yourself - you aren't as interesting as you think.

Support me... If you don't understand me don't write about me

It had never occurred to me before that music and thinking are so much alike. In fact you could say music is another way of thinking, or maybe thinking is another kind of music.

I also helped write the five-page statement of principles that Civic Forum issued in late November. That was the first public expression of what the new government wanted to do.

I write with one hand, but I fight with both.

I'm weird - I don't really listen to American music while I'm writing. I do occasionally get an anthem song, but generally speaking, when I write, I only listen to Japanese and Hawaiian music.

Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible.

Our sufferings and weaknesses, in so far as they are personal, are of no literary interest whatsoever. They are only interesting in so far as we can see them as typical of the human condition.

Use your imagination. Trust me, your lives are not interesting. Don't write them down.

Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.

Anyone can write. Some people can write a bit better than others; they're called authors. Then there are some who can write better than authors; they're called artists.

I'm not one of those people who write all the time. Sometimes I'll go several months without writing anything. I'll sometimes second guess myself and wonder if I'll ever write another song.

I consider a story merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials.

Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?

If I had not existed, someone else would have written me, Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, all of us.

Graham Greene at 82 years old was still writing, and I don't think anyone can deny the force, the expertise, and the unique quality of his writing, if you take his complete oeuvre.

Writing is a form of self-flagellation.

If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.

Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other.

Few people realize how badly they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style.

Clutter is the disease of American writing.

Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand - but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.

I think when we engage in language we are engaging in something that is specifically and primally human.

Writing lets you step back and think through a problem. Even the angriest rant forces the writer to achieve a degree of thoughtfulness.

The public is the only critic whose judgment is worth anything at all.

Making of poetry, music, dance and art as culture-making in the service of nation-making. You can find writings that make that purpose for art quite explicit.

I don't want security guards. I don't think security guards are particularly good for your writing.

When we think we have something to say we are usually wrong. We are fooling ourselves. Trip into discovery. Don't write what you know, discover something new.

A brighter future is ours to write. Let’s begin this new chapter — together — and let’s start the work right now.

Sometimes I was in a mood to write a song as if I was writing in my journal and reveal certain parts of me that I was ready to reveal.

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.

Writing and performing should deepen the meaning of words, should illuminate, transfix and transform.

I'm still getting to the good part / the breaking down / learning how to write my story.

You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on

To write a short story, you have to be able to stay up all night.

Reading, like writing, is a creative act. If readers only bring a narrow range of themselves to the book, then they'll only see their narrow range reflected in it.

And yes, there's a simplicity to writing books because you're not a member of a team, so you make all the decisions yourself instead of deferring to a committee.

The best reason for putting anything down on paper is that one may then change it.

The Orenda is a powerful story from history, folklore and the imagination, based on the universality of human cruelty, superstition and perseverance. Wonderful writing.

He is not in the least arrogant. The last album was written in a room in Sussex. He was like a mad professor, spending all day writing and then coming out with brilliant tunes.

Fans always write asking why I didn't smile more in films. I smiled in 'Annie Laurie', but I can't recall that it helped much.

What you said hurt me very much. I cried all the way to the bank.

The knowledge that it takes to write a poem gets burnt up in the writing of the poem.