Quotes About Writing

we're all instruments for Tao or God or whatever you call the energy that writes the books, delivers the speeches, makes the lifesaving discoveries, and so on.

It's experiences in life that give us something to write about, and since good fiction is applied tension, you'll have an arsenal of good material if life hasn't been peachy (and not a whole lot if it has).

This habit of using words which have no definite meaning is very convenient to writers, but very much the reverse for readers. [What is Darwinism (New York, 1874), p. 21]

She had students read their compositions aloud so that everyone could hear how good writing had three Cs: clarity, coherence, and cadence.

Some students, he realized, were in the workshop primarily to avoid being drafted, and not because of an overwhelming desire to write. Quietly, he let it be known that he didn't care whether the young men in his classes submitted anything; he wouldn't flunk them, which could result in losing their student deferment and making them eligible for the draft.133

my war on commas. They are a pestilence. They must be stopped.

I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.

It is common enough for writers to find that, in the very act of writing, they express ideas and beliefs which they never knew they had; a deeper level of their personality is revealed, a level hidden until then from conscious awareness.

It was a dark and stormy night.Suddenly a scream pierced the air…. Good writing takes enormous concentration.

There is no way on this earth that something so beautiful can come out of something so screwed up. So black-hearted. But somehow it does, and because it's beautiful and I don't want to lose it, and because there is still a part of me that would like to share it, I write it down.

Writes over the old memories. Makes beauty out of pain. Love writes what can be.

Proving once again that writing is an amazing transaction, and that the most powerful thing ever is a word.

More important: Unless you're in the hard sciences, the process of writing is your most valuable single tool for developing better ideas. The process of writing is the dominant source of intellectual creativity.

After a couple of hours of intense work, I look at the paragraph I'm struggling with and know that it will be easier to finish it tomorrow. Other writers who talk about their routines usually make the same point—three or four hours a day is about the maximum that can be expected.

the process of writing is your most valuable single tool for developing better ideas. The process of writing is the dominant source of intellectual creativity.

A writer should read until he is filled to the brim and like a pitcher which is over-filled over flows. And then he should write.

You don't help people in your poems. I've been trying to help people all my life - that's my trouble.

Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof they were busy.

Nothing is too long or too short either if you have a true and interesting tale and what I call a "graphic" writing style combined with educational aims.

To be a serious writer requires discipline that is iron fisted. It's sitting down and doing it whether you think you have it in you or not. Everyday. Alone. Without interruption. Contrary to what most people think, there is no glamour to writing. In fact, it's heartbreak most of the time. --Harper Lee

I must write…I like to write. Sometimes I'm afraid that I like it too much because when I get into work I don't want to leave it. As a result I'll go for days without leaving the house or wherever I happen to be. I'll go out long enough to get papers and pick up some food and that's it. It's strange, but instead of hating writing I love it too much. --Harper Lee

I write to annoy God, to make Death laugh. I write because I can't get it right.

One writes because one has been touched by the yearning for and the despair of ever touching the Other.

Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it—which comes to the same thing—is by writing in it.