100+ Writing Quotes & Sayings

The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.

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Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.

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The first draft of anything is shit.

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Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.

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Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I'm always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the system.

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Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you.

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A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

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Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.

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What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.

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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.

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My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.

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The desire to write grows with writing.

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I stand in the mist and cry, thinking of myself standing in the mist and crying, and wondering if I will ever be able to use this experience in a book.

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I've seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil.

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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

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I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

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Every writer I know has trouble writing.

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If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.

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Remember to get the weather in your damn book--weather is very important.

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When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.

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There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.

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it is all very well for you to write simply and the simpler the better. But do not start to think so damned simply. Know how complicated it is and then state it simply.

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After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love, and I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day.

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There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

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Don't get it right - get it WRITTEN!

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You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

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My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.

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Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.

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If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.

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There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

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The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.

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It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.

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My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.

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Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

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If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.

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I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.

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Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.

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An artist is someone who can hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain fully functional.

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The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.

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There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.

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