Quotes About Writing

You can fix anything but a blank page.

You can't edit a blank page

The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.

I sort of try to write everything for me. I'm a huge sports fan but have no interest in minutiae. I don't remember who won Super Bowls five years ago or listen to sports talk radio. I'm trying to make sure the jokes are self-contained so they're accessible to everyone.

Y}ou make do with what you're given, and I've spent a good many years learning to write fine-sounding sentences so that I can hide behind them. It's the way of the hermit crab, with nothing to recommend it but the pretty shell it annexes for its own.

Every one of my books had killed me a little more.

I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it.

I have tried my best to keep my country alive by writing about it.

No writing is good enough until you, as an author, make a small contribution, the size of a drop, into the ocean of the world's literature.

I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.

?nsan beyninin böyle farkl? güçte olmas?, birinin yazd???n?, ötekinin okuyacak kadar bile bir zekâya sahip olmamas? çok üzücü.

Yazma i?ini b?rakt?m. Esasl? bir adam olsayd?m b?rakmazd?m. Her davran???m?n yans?nda, ba?ka bir heyecana kapt?r?yordum kendimi. Heyecan m?? Bak bunu unutmu?tum, diye m?r?ldand?m. (Yaln?z olunca insan daha rahat davran?r: m?r?ldan?r.)

I began reading science fiction before I was 12 and started writing science fiction around the same time.

No one was going to stop me from writing and no one had to really guide me towards science fiction. It was natural, really, that I would take that interest.

Well, writing was what I wanted to do, it was always what I wanted to do. I had novels to write so I wrote them.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.

A workshop is a way of renting an audience, and making sure you're communicating what you think you're communicating. It's so easy as a young writer to think you're been very clear when in fact you haven't.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

I'm trying to speak--to write-the truth. I"m trying to be clear. I'm not interested in being fancy, or even original. Clarity and truth will be plenty, if I can only achieve them.

Sometimes I wrote things because I couldn't say them, couldn't sort out my feelings about them, couldn't keep them bottled inside me.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice. You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

Frankly, it never occurred to me that I needed someone who looked like me to show me the way. I was ignorant and arrogant and persistent and the writing left me no choice at all."9

Sometimes writing about a thing makes it easier to stand.