Quotes About Writing

The world always had more details than you could remember, more than you could even see, and a thousand times more than you could ever write down. You were always deleting and forgetting far more than you could express in words.

she wasn't so much a writer as a thief.

Maybe the trick was not to panic. In life, as in the bewildering business of writing stories and flinging them out into the world, you had to focus on the page in front of you.

For me, writing's the only thing that's always real. I've never regretted a day I wrote a good scene, whatever else I screwed up that day. That's what's fucking real.

But books don't happen by accident.

Writing fairies can get grumpy in a new house," Johari said. "Like cats. Mine pissed on the pillows every night for a week after I moved up to New York.

We all steal," Standerson said. "The trick is to steal from regular people, not other novelists.

At other times I sit and wait. If nothing comes, I've discovered that it's better just to write something – anything. You can always tear up the piece of paper and throw it away. But if you don't begin, then nothing comes. You have to submit.

People wonder why you choose certain subjects to write about. The truth is: you don't really. They choose you

At times when I'm beside myself with exasperation at everything, and temporarily inclined to feel I'm simply better off dead, or am longing to just go away somewhere, anywhere, then if I happen to come by some lovely white paper for everyday use and a good writing brush, or white decorated paper or Michinoku paper, I'm immensely cheered, and find myself thinking I might perhaps be able to go on living for a while after all.

I opened my letter to Margaret by describing the scene—I always enjoy receiving a letter when the writer locates himself or herself in a definite place, and I like to know if there is a cup of tea at hand, or how the light is falling in the room or beyond the window. Such descriptions transcend the barriers of time and space and give reader and writer the illusion that they are together.

If Hemingway is to believed, poverty is an invaluable school for a writer. Poverty makes a man clear-sighted. And so on. It's interesting that Hemingway realized this only when he became rich.

Write like you talk. Often.

Writing a book is a tremendous experience. It pays off intellectually. It clarifies your thinking. It builds credibility. It is a living engine of marketing and idea spreading, working every day to deliver your message with authority. You should write one. Seth Godin

One day, I'd like to write a book about the worst ads ever run, but my fear is that it would be too long.

Every time you find yourself following the manual instead of writing the manual, you're avoiding the anguish and giving in to the resistance.

I don't remember writing most of these posts.

Sorry that this e-booklet is so short. Actually, if I hadn't spent so much time on it, it would be longer.

Here's the thing: the book that will most change your life is the book you write.

orr we find a typo in a book.

Less than 3% of newly published authors make enough in royalties and advances to be happy to live on.)

I learned to dream through reading, learned to create dreams through writing, and learned to develop dreamers through teaching. I shall always be a dreamer.

Words fall out of the sky like leaves, girl. Grab a couple and write 'em down.

There is something in me maybe someday to be written; now it is folded, and folded, and folded, like a note in school.