Quotes about writing page 8
Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) American illustrator and writer of children's books
Source: Caldecott and Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures
“No one who writes a good book is really dead.”
Walter Moers (1957) German comic creator and author
“Writing is the act of discovery.”
Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer
Source: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays
“Great books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
“Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.”
Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist
Source: My Reading Life
“Writing is not some quiet, closet act.”
Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist
“Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.”
Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
“I am a recluse at present & do nothing but write & read & read & write”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
Source: The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Volume 1: 1903-1917
“Every Messiah fails, writes Litvak, the moment he tries to redeem himself”
Michael Chabon book The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Source: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007), Chapter 38
Source: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Michael Card (1957) singer, songwriter, author, composer, Radio Host
Source: The Walk: The Life-changing Journey of Two Friends
Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) Journalist and writer
Source: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
“What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call.”
Liz Carpenter (1920–2010) American writer
“When I cannot write a poem, I bake biscuits and feel just as pleased.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American aviator and author
“You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.”
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)
“Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book -and does”
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
“In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.”
Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter
Variant: When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
“bad writing's like bad women: there's just not much you can do about it”
Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness
Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist
Source: Reuben, Reuben
Lawrence Block (1938) American writer
Source: Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print
“I have decided that maybe I want to write when I grow up. I just don't know what I would write.”
Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“For me, the first sign of oncoming madness is that I'm unable to write.”
Marya Hornbacher (1974) American journalist
Source: Madness: A Bipolar Life
“I begin with writing the first
sentence—and trusting to Almighty
God for the second.”
Laurence Sterne book The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Source: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
“People who write fiction, if they had not taken it up, might have become very successful liars.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
“You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald (1 July 1925); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker
Context: Write me at the Hotel Quintana, Pamplona, Spain. Or don't you like to write letters. I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something
“It's much more entertaining to live books than to write them.”
Jean Webster book Daddy-Long-Legs
Source: Daddy-Long-Legs
“To call that writing, madam, is an insult to quills and ink across the world.”
Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist
Source: To Catch an Heiress
Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast
As quoted in Reporting (1964) by Lillian Ross
Source: A Moveable Feast
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“Write a thousand words a day and in three years you'll be a writer!”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer
“So long as you write it away regularly nothing can really hurt you.”
Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) novelist, short story writer
“writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems
Lynne Truss (1955) British writer
Source: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
“She thought a writer should work harder writing a book than she did reading it.”
Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot
Source: The Marriage Plot
Samuel R. Delany (1942) American author, professor and literary critic
Source: About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews
Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist
Variant: Writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.
“I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss—you can’t do it alone.”
John Cheever (1912–1982) American novelist and short story writer
Christian Science Monitor (October 24, 1979).
Georges Simenon (1903–1989) Belgian writer
Interviewed in Paris Review, Summer 1955; reprinted in Malcolm Cowley (ed.) Writers at Work (New York: Viking Press, 1959) p. 146.
Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist
Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer
Source: How to Kill a Rock Star
“The beach is not a place to work; to read, write or to think.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea
Source: Gift from the Sea
Pablo Neruda book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
¿Quién escribe tu nombre con letras de humo entre las estrellas del sur?
Ah déjame recordarte cómo eras entonces, cuando aún no existías.
"Every Day You Play" (Juegas Todos los Días), XIV, p. 35.
Source: Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) (1924)
“If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.”
Beverly Cleary (1916) American writer of children's books
“If he wrote it, he could get rid of it. He had gotten rid of many things by writing them.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
Stephen Fry book The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
Source: The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
“Most rats read. Our frustration is, we cannot hold a pen to write.”
Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
Letter to Sylvia Payne (24 April 1906), from The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield (1984-1996), vol. I
Aldo Leopold book A Sand County Almanac
“November: Axe-in-Hand”, p. 68.
Source: A Sand County Almanac, 1949, "November: Axe-in-Hand," "November: A Mighty Fortress," and "December: Pines above the Snow"
Context: I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land.
“I am aware of being in a beautiful prison, from which I can only escape by writing.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
