Quotes About Writing

one burst after another as my wife turned in her sleep. I was a single monkey trying to type the opening lines of my Hamlet

And when my heart is beating too rapidly in the dark, I will go downstairs in a robe, open it up to a blank page, and try to settle on the blue lines whatever it is that seems to be the matter.

Now I sit down at the desk, ready to begin. I am entirely pure: nothing but a skeleton at a typewriter. I should mention that sometimes I leave my penis on. I find it difficult to ignore the temptation. Then I am a skeleton with a penis at a typewriter.

The manner in which Epictetus , Montaigne , and Salomon de Tultie wrote, is the most usual, the most suggestive, the most remembered, and the oftener quoted; because it is entirely composed of thoughts born from the common talk of life.

La dernière chose qu'on trouve en faisant un ouvrage est de savoir celle qu'il faut mettre la première. ( The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first .)

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

Please forgive the long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one.

Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.

I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.

The last thing one knows when writing a book is what to put first.

When we see a natural style, we are astonished and delighted; for we expected to see an author, and we find a man.

The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first.

Reverend Fathers, my letters do not customarily follow one another so closely, nor are they usually so extensive. The little time I have had has caused both. I have made this one longer only because I have not had the leisure of making it shorter.

La vanité est si ancrée dans le cÅ"ur de l'homme qu'un soldat, un goujat, un cuisinier, un crocheteur se vante et veut avoir ses admirateurs ; et les philosophes mêmes en veulent. Et ceux qui écrivent contre veulent avoir la gloire d'avoir bien écrit ; et ceux qui lisent veulent avoir la gloire de l'avoir lu ; et moi qui écris ceci, ai peut-être cette envie ».

The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first.

And I realized the whole thing about fashion or writing about fashion or even thinking about fashion was confidence. You had to be confident and other people had to have confidence in you.

Making it in poetry The young teller at the credit union asked why so many small checks from universities? Because I write poems I said. Why haven't I heard of you? Because I write poems I said.

maybe some of us need to write what we are afraid to know or face. I see many writers who avoid writing what they should be writing because it would mean confronting their fears. Be curious about your fear—it's a cave, but instead of a monster lurking inside there is treasure instead.

You can write in multiple genres, but if you want a career in publishing, pick one genre and become very good at it. Then you can write the other stuff.

How good is your writing? The best idea in the world has to be supported by solid writing.

I'm convinced fear is at the root of most bad writing." Stephen King

You can "pants" your way through your novel, but you can't "pants" your way to success.

Authors produce the books. Readers consume the books.  Everyone else is in the middle.  And therefore, very, very nervous. 

expecting your publisher to promote and push your book is like expecting your OB-GYN to raise your child.