Browse through our collection of quotes tagged with On Writing.
I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Stories. Character. Dialouge. Entire worlds created on the page. Worlds that could sweep you away or frighten you, make you laugh or cry. Worlds that allowed you to escape to another country or time. Worlds built piece by piece of ink and punctuation.
Jamie Michaels
Most of us have a soundtrack running in the background of our lives. I access that soundtrack when I write.
Robin M. Helm
Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment.
Stephen King
But it's writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can't or won't, it's time for you to close the book and do something else. Wash the car, maybe.
In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened. Tell the truth and write the story. Then you won't get mixed up. It was the best advice Francie every got.
Betty Smith
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
George Orwell
Writers were blessed stenographers taking divine dictation.
A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.
Mark Twain
All I ask is that you do as well as you can, and remember that, while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine.
A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.
Oscar Wilde
Running a close second [as a writing lesson] was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascendThe brightest heaven of invention!
William Shakespeare
Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly.
Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
C.S. Lewis
When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.
All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.
Leo Tolstoy
Whenever I'm asked what advice I have for young writers, I always say that the first thing is to read, and to read a lot. The second thing is to write. And the third thing, which I think is absolutely vital, is to tell stories and listen closely to the stories you're being told.
John Green
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