Writing Quotes

Browse through our collection of quotes tagged with Writing.

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a lo

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

Writing

Discipline and constant work are the whetstones upon which t

Discipline and constant work are the whetstones upon which the dull knife of talent is honed until it becomes sharp enough, hopefully, to cut through even the toughest meat and gristle.

Creativity Talent Writing

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a lon

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

Minimalism Brevity Writing 31

It is the tale, not he who tells it.

It is the tale, not he who tells it.

Writing

What difference does it make if you live in a picturesque li

What difference does it make if you live in a picturesque little outhouse surrounded by 300 feeble minded goats and your faithful dog? The question is: Can you write?

Ernest Hemingway

Writing

Here is a lesson in creative writing.First rule: Do not use

Here is a lesson in creative writing.First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I'm kidding.For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I'm kidding.We are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away. I'm kidding.If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.

Art Humor Funny Writing Creative Process

It's best to have your tools with you. If you don't, you're

It's best to have your tools with you. If you don't, you're apt to find something you didn't expect and get discouraged.

Tools Writing Preparation

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroy

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

Civilization Writing Writers

Talent is extremely common. What is rare is the willingness

Talent is extremely common. What is rare is the willingness to endure the life of the writer.

Talent Writing

A short story is a different thing all together - a short st

A short story is a different thing all together - a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger.

Reading Writing

Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external w

Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.

George Orwell Writing Write

After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and ha

After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing

The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid;

The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid; a good tale belongs to each reader in its own particular way.

Books Writing

People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with

People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Humor Funny Writing

Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness,

Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness, but I doubt if they improve his writing.... For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing Writing Life

People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a li

People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. It takes thought and research and backache and notes and more time and more work than you'd believe.

Books Writing Creative Process

Because, as we know, almost anything can be read into any bo

Because, as we know, almost anything can be read into any book if you are determined enough. This will be especially impressed on anyone who has written fantastic fiction. He will find reviewers, both favourable and hostile, reading into his stories all manner of allegorical meanings which he never intended. (Some of the allegories thus imposed on my own books have been so ingenious and interesting that I often wish I had thought of them myself.)

Writing

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

Writing

I've met talespinners before, Jake, and they're all cut more

I've met talespinners before, Jake, and they're all cut more or less from the same cloth. They tell tales because they're afraid of life.

Fear Writing Writers

Gordon eyed them with inert hatred. At this moment he hated

Gordon eyed them with inert hatred. At this moment he hated all books, and novels most of all. Horrible to think of all that soggy, half-baked trash massed together in one place.

Life Writing