Quotes About Writing

It's not easy for me as a writer to suspend my disbelief in a fantastical zone. I can do it. But it's more natural for me to write stories that are comic. Or hopefully comic.

I actually often write about writing music and being in that zone.

I sing, but I also like to write. Creativity is the best part because you're then in your own zone and can talk about whatever you want to talk about - it lets you be free.

When writers say that they need to 'set the mood' or 'get into the zone', those are all ways to procrastinate. Not prerequisites.

As for finding comfort in the zone, I'm comfortable singing what I write. I like writing emotional and slow, melodious songs. I haven't tried singing songs from other genres, but yes, I would like to give them a try.

A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is an ability to articulate human relationships.

I never work better than when I am inspired by anger; for when I am angry, I can write, pray, and preach well, for then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mundane vexations and temptations depart.

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of many, and grows inveterate in their insane breasts.

You do not publish your own verses, Laelius; you criticise mine. Pray cease to criticise mine, or else publish your own.

The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.

Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book!

I've learned ruthless concentration. I can write under any circumstances ... street noises, loud talk, music, you name it.

Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.

I feel successful when the writing goes well. This lasts five minutes. Once, when I was number one on the bestseller list, I also felt successful. That lasted three minutes.

O lovely Sisters! is it true That they are all inspired by you, And write by inward magic charm'd, And high enthusiasm warm'd?

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.

My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean.

The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.

There's an old hymn called 'How Can I Keep from Singing?' That's what writing feels like to me. I have to write. It's intrinsic to who I am. So it was a natural choice for me to try to pursue writing as a career. Truthfully, though, I still daydream about how fun it would be to ride on the back of a garbage truck.

'The Chronicles of Narnia' are war-determined stories. I do not think Lewis could have written well or truthfully if he had tried to avoid the reality of war.

I feel as though there are things that I'm trying to do - you know, capturing truthfully some aspect of human experience - and I'm trying really hard not to be fake. And in writing, as in life, it's harder than you think.

It's so hard to write about countries like Haiti because there's truths behind the misperceptions people have. But there's so much more. There are multiple truths.

One of the main reasons I write fiction is to try to understand what life is like for people other than myself, to try to see the world through my characters' eyes. I often find that I'm able to understand certain emotional truths about my own life by exploring things from different vantages.