Quotes About Writing

I write from real life. I am an unrepentant eavesdropper and a collector of stories. I record bits of overheard dialogue.

What you must accept is that your life is not going to be the same while you are writing.

Fiction is risky for writers also in that the process of making certain books, of shaping certain narratives, leaves scars and marks on your inner life.

In secluding himself too much from society, an author is in danger of losing that intimate acquaintance with life which is the only sure foundation of power in a writer.

in writing we live life twice: once in the experience, and again in recording and reflecting upon our experience.

My journal is my life's companion.

Mrs. Browning's death was rather a relief to me, I must say; no more Aurora Leighs, thank God!

Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword.

It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefoot friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

I really think I write about everyday life. I don't think I'm quite as odd as others say I am. Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring.

A writer is thinking about what he's supposed to be doing, whether he's actually doing it or not, every waking hour. He's constantly pondering problems.

O Gracious and Loving God,   the ancients believed that writing   is a sacred gift from you. Send me the gift of words   so that I can say what must be said   in a way that will cause as little pain as possible. Inspire me with your wisdom   and guide my hand as I write.

Writing becomes a form of protest against the incontestable ravages of time. The poet takes revenge on mortality, defeating cruelty and saving what she can by thinking the unthinkable and presiding over her own creation. The joy of writing stands against the bitter knowledge of just how much of the world cannot be controlled outside the work of art. This is the art of poetry trying to kill time. "Probably

If you had told me, though, when I was twenty-four that I would write about Skokie, Illinois, where I grew up, I would have said, 'You're out of your mind. Why would I have Skokie in a poem?' But you become resigned. Your job is to write about the life you actually have.

Writing fixes the evanescence of sound and holds it against death.

Of all the Arts, writing, perhaps, shows most clearly the formative force of the instruments used.

I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows.

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!Who has written such volumes of stuff!Some think him ill-tempered and queer,But a few think him pleasant enough.

In my opinion the best writer of historical novels. He makes you feel, smell, see every thing he describes in all his books. He doesn't only write, he makes you linked images in your mind with his words.

If with water you fill up your glasses You'll never write anything wise But wine is the horse of Parnassus That carries a bard to the skies.

When you write ,it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring then unity.

When you write, it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others are short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light. Like the diverse women of your family. Those whose fables and metaphors, whose similes and soliloquies, whose diction and je ne sais quoi daily slip into your survival soup, by way of their fingers.

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.