“Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write.”

—  Robert Penn Warren

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write." by Robert Penn Warren?
Robert Penn Warren photo
Robert Penn Warren 49
American poet, novelist, and literary critic 1905–1989

Related quotes

Merlin Mann photo

“Distractions have never prevented a Writing Writer Who Writes from writing; distractions are an excuse proffered by Non-Writing Non-Writers Who are Not-Writing for why they are not writing.”

Merlin Mann (1966) American blogger

Kung Fu Grippe http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/6004196999/like-hammers
Websites, The KungFu Grippe Tumblr website

A. Lee Martinez photo

“Those who write are writers. Those who wait are waiters.”

A. Lee Martinez (1973) Author
Larry Niven photo

“1) Writers who write for other writers should write letters.”

Larry Niven (1938) American writer

Niven's Laws, Niven's Laws For Writers

“What makes a good writer of history is a guy who is suspicious. Suspicion marks the real difference between the man who wants to write honest history and the one who'd rather write a good story.”

Jim Bishop (1907–1987) American journalist and author

As quoted by Lewis Nichols http://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/30/obituaries/lewis-nichols-times-drama-critic-during-world-war-ii-dead-at-78.html in "Talk With Jim Bishop" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F03EEDE133AE53BBC4E53DFB466838E649EDE, The New York Times (6 February 1955).

“You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Penguins and Golden Calves (2003)
Context: I have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject’s sake, and those who write for writing’s sake. The first kind have had thoughts or experiences which seem to them worth communicating, while the second kind need money and consequently write for money.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Essays, On Authorship and Style

Junot Díaz photo

“In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book.”

Junot Díaz (1968) Dominican-American writer
Ted Hughes photo

“Many writers write a great deal, but very few write more than a very little of the real thing. So most writing must be displaced activity.”

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) English poet and children's writer

The Paris Review interview
Context: Many writers write a great deal, but very few write more than a very little of the real thing. So most writing must be displaced activity. When cockerels confront each other and daren’t fight, they busily start pecking imaginary grains off to the side. That’s displaced activity. Much of what we do at any level is a bit like that, I fancy. But hard to know which is which. On the other hand, the machinery has to be kept running. The big problem for those who write verse is keeping the machine running without simply exercising evasion of the real confrontation. If Ulanova, the ballerina, missed one day of practice, she couldn’t get back to peak fitness without a week of hard work. Dickens said the same about his writing—if he missed a day he needed a week of hard slog to get back into the flow.

Related topics