“Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you – as if you haven't been told a million times ALREADY – that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.”

— Harlan Ellison

As quoted in Quit Your Day Job!: How to Sleep Late, Do What You Enjoy, and Make a Ton of ... (2004) by James D. Denney, p. 124 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1884956041

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you – as if you haven…" by Harlan Ellison?

Harlan Ellison79

American writer 1934–2018

Related quotes

“Don't tell me I haven't been good to you.
Don't tell me I have never been there for you.
Don't tell me why
Nothing is good enough.”

Sarah McLachlan (1968) Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter

Good Enough
Song lyrics, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993)

“Writing isn’t fun. It’s the hardest work in the world. The very, very hardest. I mean creative writing. If it’s reportorial, it’s a different thing. When you have to create a whole milieu, with characters and background, that’s a different thing entirely. … Oh, you start out all enthusiastic. But after two or three chapters it becomes plain drudgery. I worked about ten hours the other night just on correcting and rewriting, because what you write originally is just a shadow of what you had in mind.”

Taylor Caldwell (1900–1985) Novelist

1970s-, The Captains, the Kings, and Taylor Caldwell (1978)

“This morning Jackson had told Matthew, "You mention death one more time, and I"ll knock you into next week.?"
"Already been there," Matthew had answered.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Poison Princess

“You know, it's hard work to write a book. I can't tell you how many times I really get going on an idea, then my quill breaks. Or I spill ink all over my writing tunic.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: The Funny Thing Is...

“I'm really serious about this writing thing. What time I haven't been writing, I've been reading: Thomas Wolfe, if you know who he is. His writing is mostly built about the central character of a writer, himself. Altho it's fiction, it deals with his life and experiences. In my opinion, little as it's worth, he is the greatest writer that has lived, Shakespeare included. He is a genius.”

James Jones (1921–1977) American author

Letter to his brother Jeff, from Hawaii (7 April 1941); p. 11
To Reach Eternity (1989)

“You have to really work at it to write. I guess there has to be talent first; but even with talent you still have to work at it, to write.”

James Jones (1921–1977) American author

The Paris Review interview (1958)

“Writing is all a lottery -- I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age.”

Tobias Smollett book The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771).

“I love writing, but I feel like you need time to really get in touch with yourself to do that. On [Metamorphosis], I would have liked to have had more time to work with the writers [and] write some more of my own stuff. Hopefully I can do that on my second album.”

Hilary Duff (1987) American actress and singer

Rosen, Craig. "Hilary Duff: A Performer's Metamorphosis" http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2076149. Billboard. January 26 2004. Retrieved October 25 2006. <br class="br">On Metamorphosis (2003), her second album and first non-holiday album.

“The hardest thing to do is to write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know the subject; then you have to know how to write.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

A Letter from Cuba (1934)
Context: The hardest thing to do is to write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know the subject; then you have to know how to write. Both take a lifetime to learn, and anybody is cheating who takes politics as a way out. All the outs are too easy, and the thing itself is too hard to do.

“I write description in longhand because that's hardest for me and you're closer to the paper when you work by hand, but I use the typewriter for dialogue because people speak like a typewriter works.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

“Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you – as if you haven't been told a million times ALREADY – that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Harlan Ellison79

Related quotes

Related topics