Quotes About Writing

Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.

When people start writing there is this idea that you have to get everything right first time, every sentence has to be perfect, every paragraph has to be perfect, every chapter has to be perfect, but what you're doing is not any kind of public show, until you're ready for it.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free.

You can't go with the intention of writing something inspirational. You just have to go with the right heart.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

Writing is like travelling. It's wonderful to go somewhere, but you get tired of staying.

I think it would be cool if you were writing a ransom note on your computer, if the paper clip popped up and said, 'Looks like you're writing a ransom note. Need help? You should use more forceful language, you'll get more money.'

I like pens. My writing is so amazing there's never a need to erase.

I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting.

All autobiography is storytelling; all writing is autobiography.

In the future, I'd like to continue being honest with myself and admit when I'd be better off asking someone else to illustrate my writing.

There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile... a stain upon the silence.

Sometimes, what's not said is just as important to the writing as what is said. As a writer, we have our voices heard. I think that, at oftentimes, the ability to allow the dialogue to recede properly into the world of the film is also a really valid sort of way to be a writer, I think.

I've always preferred writing about grey characters and human characters. Whether they are giants or elves or dwarves, or whatever they are, they're still human, and the human heart is still in conflict with the self.

Hard writing makes easy reading.

You don't want to become guilty of plagiarism by letting someone else's words get inadvertently mixed in with your own. If you do feel the need to paste in a block of research while you're writing, be sure to highlight the copied text in a different color so you can go back and remove or rewrite it entirely later.

No amount of money can replace the kind of happiness and satisfaction I derive out of writing.

All art is propaganda, and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

I've never been a very prolific person, so when creativity flows, it flows. I find myself scribbling on little notepads and pieces of loose paper, which results in a very small portion of my writings to ever show up in true form.

Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone.