100+ Writing Quotes & Sayings

Fiction should be a place of lollipops and escape. Real life is depressing enough--I, for one, don't want to read about make believe misery, too.

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I want to see thirstIn the syllables,Tough fireIn the sound;Feel through the darkFor the scream.

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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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The scariest moment is always just before you start.

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

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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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I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That’s 180,000 words over a three-month span, a goodish length for a book — something in which the reader can get happily lost, if the tale is done well and stays fresh.

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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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If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.

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If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready’.

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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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Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.

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The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write about it.

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It is the tale, not he who tells it.

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Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects.

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A story isn't a charcoal sketch, where every stroke lies on the surface to be seen. It's an oil painting, filled with layers that the author must uncover so carefully to show its beauty.

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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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I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

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The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

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and sometimes I sitdown at my typewriterand I thinknot of someonecause there isn't anyoneto thinkabout and i wonderis it worth it

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A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.

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A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.

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I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.

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If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

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The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

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Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

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Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.

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Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.

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I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.

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Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.

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A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

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I don't know why I started writing. I don't know why anybody does it. Maybe they're bored, or failures at something else.

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I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint; every line in the dirt like a secret message.

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The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

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If you can quit, then quit. If you can't quit, you're a writer.

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You know, everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects.

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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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When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.

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Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

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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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