Quotes About Writing

If your writing is brutally honest, comes from the heart, beware, it will take its emotional toll. But, it's worth it.

The writing life: frustration, fear, independence, exhilaration, worry, adventure, a sense of the unknown.

Write a novel so clear and compelling you'll never need to explain what it's about.

Make art from your own life. Bring insight to your suffering, find distance, and in your maturity, write about it. Conflict & drama are the essence of a novel.

Every writer has doubts. The only way to dispel them is to write.

No matter how much you write and do other things, make time to read.

I sometimes surprise myself when one of my characters says something I would never say.

First draft, use your heart. Revision, use your head

Creativity isn't defined by word count, or the number of books one has published. A writer makes a commitment to stretch as far as possible, reaching for the music of words.

There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. A writer's task is to arrange them into sentences telling a unique story with guts, heart & soul.

The writing life is not for the timid. It's filled with challenge, uncertainty & frustration, but it's a beautiful, expansive & creative one

Reading is the never-ending apprenticeship for writing ~ Mark Rubinstein

I truly believe a novelist must arrive at an altered state of consciousness to reach that creative zone where the fingers fly & the words flow.

Guard your writing time--zealously. It's precious, even if it's only one or two hours a day.

A writer has only three tools: language, experience and imagination.

You know you've been writing from the heart when, in the midst of a story, you ask, 'What would my mother think of this?

Writing is the gateway to learning about one's self. Reading is the gateway to learning about the world.

A writer's downfall is chasing the marketplace. Doing that, you only see it's rear end. Write from the heart, not for the market.

The world is on fire, young man. As writers, it is only proper that we do what we can to warn people. But in telling the truth to the world, don't lie to yourself. Write whatever you want. Tell the truth. Just don't imagine that you are changing anything. Like I said, people just want to have a good time. -Snagglepuss

There are authors who write to communicate, there are authors who write to impress themselves.

Chemistry is the study of the composition, properties, and behavior of matter—humor writing is the study of the composition, properties, and behavior of funny. The atoms, or basic units, of humor writing are words. (The subatomic structures are letters or sounds.) These comedic atoms (words) form the elements known as jokes. Although there

Once you can consistently make people laugh, it's essential to target your material so you don't waste precious time preparing the wrong material for the wrong performer, to be delivered to the wrong audience, for the wrong purpose. This is true for all forms of humor writing.

The material must be appropriate to the interests of the audience (or readers), and each must relate to the persona of the performer (or writer). Throughout the book, we'll show you how to create and follow the MAPP to successful humor writing.

Generally speaking, writers who have been at it for a while, and who are any good at it, suffer from an acute kind of self-knowledge. The unexamined life is not a risk for them.