Quotes about writing

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“Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.”

Julia Cameron (1948) American writer

“Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at fifteen to write several novels.”

May Sarton (1912–1995) American poet, novelist, and memoirist

“To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. That’s just the act of all good writing.”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

“You write in order to change the world… if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

“I do not so much write a book as sit up with it, as a dying friend. I hold its hand and hope it will get better.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

“It has forever been thus: So long as men write what they think, then all of the other freedoms - all of them - may remain intact. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of truth, an article of faith, an act of courage.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

“He could hardly read or write but his heart spoke the language of the good”

Primo Levi (1918–1987) Italian chemist, memoirist, short story writer, novelist, essayist

“Writing is one of the few careers for which you essentially train yourself, the other two major ones being juggling and pickpocketing.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

“When you write, it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring then unity.”

Edwidge Danticat (1969) Novelist, short story writer, memoirist

“I've found, in my own writing, that a little hatred, keenly directed, is a useful thing.”

Alice Walker book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

“Let love write on you for awhile.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

“Life is easier when you can write off others as monsters, demon, as horrible threats that must be hated and feared the thing is you can't do that without becoming them, just a little.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

“It has taken me years of struggle, hard work, and research to learn to make one simple gesture, and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple, beautiful sentence.”

Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) American dancer and choreographer

“All I ask is that you do as well as you can, and remember that, while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“I'll go to the south of Sicily in the winter, and paint memories of Arles – I'll buy a piano and Mozart me that – I'll write long sad tales about people in the legend of my life – This part is my part of the movie, let's hear yours”

Jack Kerouac book Tristessa

“All poets write bad poetry. Bad poets publish them, good poets burn them.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair… Come to it any way but lightly.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“Your whole life you are really writing one book, which is an attempt to grasp the consciousness of your time and place– a single book written from different stages of your ability.”

Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer

“You must write, and read, as if your life depended on it.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

“If we had to say what writing is, we would have to define it essentially as an act of courage.”

Cynthia Ozick (1928) American writer

“Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French. One of the things which Gertrude Butterwick had impressed on Monty Bodkin when he left for his holiday on the Riviera was that he must be sure to practise his French, and Gertrude’s word was law. So now, though he knew that it was going to make his nose tickle, he said:
‘Er, garçon.’
‘M’sieur?’
‘Er, garçon, esker-vous avez un spot de l’encre et une piece de papier—note papier, vous savez—et une envelope et une plume.’
The strain was too great. Monty relapsed into his native tongue.
‘I want to write a letter,’ he said. And having, like all lovers, rather a tendency to share his romance with the world, he would probably have added ‘to the sweetest girl on earth’, had not the waiter already bounded off like a retriever, to return a few moments later with the fixings.
‘V’la, sir! Zere you are, sir,’ said the waiter. He was engaged to a girl in Paris who had told him that when on the Riviera he must be sure to practise his English. ‘Eenk—pin—pipper—enveloppe—and a liddle bit of bloddin-pipper.’
‘Oh, merci,’ said Monty, well pleased at this efficiency. ‘Thanks. Right-ho.’
‘Right-ho, m’sieur,’ said the waiter.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Luck of the Bodkins

“You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.”

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie book Half of a Yellow Sun

“A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.”

Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French writer and philosopher

“Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.”

Amy Tan book The Bonesetter's Daughter

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

“Authors write books for one, and only one, reason: because we like to torture people.”

Brandon Sanderson Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

“I keep thinking about blood. I dream about it. Wake up thinking about it. Pretty soon I'll be writing morbid emo poetry about it.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

“The two things I enjoy the most about writing are the first page of a book and the last. What's in between is very hard work.”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

“Read deeply, not to believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one nature that writes and reads.”

Harold Bloom book How to Read and Why

“Since I had started to break down all my writing and get rid of all facility and try to make instead of describe, writing had been wonderful to do.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

“If I waited till I felt like writing, I'd never write at all.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

“It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

“Writing is a delicious agony.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

“Writers are there to write, not experience things. If you want to experience things, become a pirate or a Bookhunter. If you want to write, write. If you can't find the makings of a story inside yourself, you won't find them anywhere.”

Walter Moers book The City of Dreaming Books

“I didn't lie, I was writing fiction with my mouth."

Homer Simpson”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

“I am telling you what I know—words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them.”

E.L. Doctorow (1931–2015) novelist, editor, professor

“You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you're merely imitating yourself, going nowhere, because that's always easiest.”

John Berryman (1914–1972) American poet

“I don't write fantasy; I write historical novels about an imaginary place.”

Raymond E. Feist (1945) Novelist

“Writing is a constant exercise in longing.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

“Writing poetry and reading books causes brain damage.”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

“Writing, then, was a substitute for myself: if you don't love me, love my writing & love me for my writing. It is also much more: a way of ordering and reordering the chaos of experience.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

“Write in the morning, revise in the afternoon, read at night, and spend the rest of your time exercising your diplomacy, stealth, and charm.”

Roberto Bolaño book The Savage Detectives

“Paper is to write things down that we need to remember. Our brains are used to think.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.”

Howard Nemerov (1920–1991) Poet

“If you want to be a writer-stop talking about it and sit down and write!”

Jackie Collins (1937–2015) British-American novelist and writer

“If cats could write history, their history would be mostly about cats.”

Eugen Weber (1925–2007) American historian

“The Writer's Oath

I promise solemnly:

1. to write as often and as much as I can,

2. to respect my writing self, and

3. to nurture the writing of others.

I accept these responsibilities and shall honor them always.”

Gail Carson Levine (1947) American writer

“There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.”

Anthony Trollope book Barchester Towers

“It was a clear, starry night, dead calm. Whenever I see a sky
like that, I wish I could write music”

Henning Mankell book Italian Shoes

“Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write yourself. Your body must be heard.”

Hélène Cixous (1937) French philosopher and writer

“I write, not for children, but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

“I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”

Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) Journalist and writer

“According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I'll thank him for the advice.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

“In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there.”

John Banville (1945) Irish writer

“All writing is filth”

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director

“The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.”

William Styron (1925–2006) American novelist and essayist

“I write emotional algebra.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

“He found himself wanting to write poetry about how her blue eyes were like starlight and her hair like night, because "night" and "starlight" rhymed, but he had a feeling the poem wouldn't turn out that well…”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

“Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when he gets down to the real business of his life, it is he and his type writer or word processor. No one else is or can be involved in the matter.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

“There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.”

Haruki Murakami book Hear the Wind Sing

“Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

“… Writings can be stolen, or changed, or used for evil purposes. But isn't the risk worth taking? The more people who share knowledge, the greater safeguard for it. Isn't there more danger in ignorance than knowledge?”

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

“The most important story we'll ever write in life is our own—not with ink, but with our daily choices.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

“… classical Arabic, being the language of the Qur'an, has not changed at all in fourteen centuries, making the writings of the early Islamic scholars as accessible today as they were then.”

Jim Al-Khalili (1962) British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster

“I believe one would write better if the climate were bad. If there were a lot of wind and storms for example…”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

“If suddenly you do not exist,
If suddenly you are not living,
I shall go on living.

I do not dare,
I do not dare to write it,
if you die.

I shall go on living.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

“I don't want to do the type of writing where I recite biography, parentage and education. I want to rise up from the words on the page and do something, hurt someone.”

Don DeLillo book Cosmopolis

“The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock—shock is a worn-out word—but astonish.”

Terry Southern (1924–1995) American author

“Dismissing fantasy writing because some of it is bad is exactly like saying I'm not reading Jane Eyre because it is a romance and I know romance is crap.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

“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.”

Sharon M. Draper (1948) American children's writer

“The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

“The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself and all things.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.
That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) American science fiction writer

“The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand.”

Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) Polish writer

“I do what I do, and write what I write, without calculating what is worth what and so on. Fortunately, I am not a banker or an accountant. I feel that there is a time when a political statement needs to be made and I make it.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

“I always start writing with a clean piece of paper and a dirty mind.”

Patrick Dennis (1921–1976) Novelist

“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

“Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

“When I write, I make discoveries about my feelings.”

Gail Carson Levine (1947) American writer

“Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.”

Paula Danziger (1945–2004) American children's writer

“I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

“As Mo had said: writing stories is a kind of magic, too.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

“Writing isn't just a job that stops at six thirty… It's a mad, sexy, sad, scary, ruthless, joyful, and utterly, utterly personal thing. There's not the writer and then me; there's just me. All of my life connects to the writing. All of it.”

Russell T. Davies (1963) Screenwriter, former executive producer of Doctor Who

“I get melancholy if I don't [write]. I need the company of people who don't exist.”

William Trevor (1928–2016) Irish writer

“Let us have integrity and not write checks with our tongues which our conduct cannot cash.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

“I like to write when I feel spiteful. It is like having a good sneeze."

(, November 1913)”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

“Nothing factual that I write or say will be as truthful as my fiction.”

Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer

“If you do not hear music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.”

Terry Brooks (1944) American writer

“People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

“When I write, I don't translate for white readers…. Dostoevski wrote for a Russian audience, but we're able to read him. If I'm specific, and I don't overexplain, then anyone can overhear me.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once, and they require separate techniques.”

Cyril Connolly book Enemies of Promise

“Does he write to you? Never a line. Does he send you a message? Never a word. It is because he loves you, poor fool, and is trying to forget you, since you are not free to listen to him or to belong to him.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

“You ask me why I do not write something… I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

“Writing is a process, a journey into memory and the soul.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

“But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself?”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Writing is the flip side of sex - it's only good when it's over.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

“People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“Writing about the unholy is one way of writing about what is sacred.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist