Writing Quotes

Browse through our collection of quotes tagged with Writing.

The actual writing would be easy. All he had to do was to tr

The actual writing would be easy. All he had to do was to transfer to paper the interminable restless monologue that had been running inside his head, literally for years.

Truth Writer Writing

Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that's

Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that's where it should stay.

Christopher Hitchens

Funny Books Humour Writing Literature Christopher Hitchens

As a young man just beginning to publish some short fiction

As a young man just beginning to publish some short fiction in the t

Writing Publishing

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but i

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects.

Society Reading Writing Etiquette Norms Politeness

Against the censurers of brevity. - Something said briefly c

Against the censurers of brevity. - Something said briefly can be the fruit of much long thought: but the reader who is a novice in this field, and has as yet reflected on it not at all, sees in everything said briefly something embryonic, not without censuring the author for having served him up such immature and unripened fare.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Brevity Expression Writing

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

Writing Critics Literary Criticism Reviewers

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Humor Funny Writing

People who write fiction, if they had not taken it up, might

People who write fiction, if they had not taken it up, might have become very successful liars.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing

Do you suffer when you write? I don't at all. Suffer like a

Do you suffer when you write? I don't at all. Suffer like a bastard when don't write, or just before, and feel empty and fucked out afterwards. But never feel as good as while writing.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing

it is all very well for you to write simply and the simpler

it is all very well for you to write simply and the simpler the better. But do not start to think so damned simply. Know how complicated it is and then state it simply.

Ernest Hemingway

Philosophy Writing

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never befo

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.

Thomas Jefferson

Politics Writing

You know how writers are... they create themselves as they c

You know how writers are... they create themselves as they create their work. Or perhaps they create their work in order to create themselves.

Orson Scott Card

Art Writing Writers

I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictati

I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say.

Writing

if you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse

if you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.

Writing

Let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the or

Let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall, let us trace the pattern, however disconnected and incoherent in appearance, which each sight or incident scores upon the consciousness. Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in what is commonly thought small.

Authors Advice Writing Readers

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down and blee

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down and bleed.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing

I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be

I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not admiration.

Orson Scott Card

Admiration Writing Wonder Wonders Writing Craft Writing Life Motivation

If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, i

If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.

Writing

Re-reading a collection of my stuff, I was rather startled t

Re-reading a collection of my stuff, I was rather startled to find that it was 'perhaps.

Christopher Hitchens

Words Writing Uncertainty Expressions

You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excite

You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair ... Come to it any way but lightly.

Writing