Writing has the power to inspire, provoke thought, and transform both the writer and the reader. Whether you're a seasoned author or just beginning your creative journey, sometimes all it takes is a few words of wisdom to spark motivation. We've gathered 42 of the most inspiring quotes on writing to encourage your passion and help you keep your creativity flowing.
1. “You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” - Jack London
2. “I have always wanted to write a book that ended with the word 'mayonnaise.” - Richard Brautigan
3. “Actually, writers have no business writing about their own works. They either wax conceited, saying things like: 'My brilliance is possibly most apparent in my dazzling short story, "The Cookiepants Hypotenuse."' Or else they get unbearably cutesy: 'My cat Ootsywootums has given me all my best ideas, hasn't oo, squeezums?” - Connie Willis
4. “Write what should not be forgotten.” - Isabel Allende
5. “You can fix anything but a blank page.” - Nora Roberts
6. “Great books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. “To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.” - Robert Frost
8. “Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.” - David Sedaris
9. “A novel rough draft is like bread dough; you need to beat the crap out of it for it to rise.” - Chris Baty
10. “Be obscure clearly.” - E.B. White
11. “You must write, and read, as if your life depended on it.” - Adrienne Rich
12. “Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose... anything goes.” - Cole Porter
13. “Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.” - Philip Pullman
14. “If you've got a message, send a telegram.” - Samuel Goldwyn
15. “I write because I love how I feel to have written.” - Carol Lynch Williams
16. “Evan Connell said once that he knew he was finished with a short story when he found himself going through it and taking out commas and then going through the story again and putting the commas back in the same places. I like that way of working on something. I respect that kind of care for what is being done. That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places so that they an best say what they are meant to say. If the words are heavy with the writer's own unbridled emotions, or if they are imprecise and inaccurate for some other reason -- if the worlds are in any way blurred -- the reader's eyes will slide right over them and nothing will be achieved. Henry James called this sort of hapless writing 'weak specification'.” - Raymond Carver
17. “Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. Writing may be interesting, absorbing, exhilarating, racking, relieving. But amusing? Never!” - Edna Ferber
18. “In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?” - Rainer Maria Rilke
19. “If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?” - Joyce Carol Oates
20. “I’m not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they’re wearing… I can always get a J. Crew catalogue… …So spare me, if you please, the hero’s ‘sharply intelligent blue eyes’ and ‘outthrust determined chin’.” - Stephen King
21. “Stories are about secrets. We all have them. Secret dreams, fantasies, hopes and sometimes even desires. Occasionally a dream becomes reality and then maybe there are a million reasons for not telling anybody about it.” - Rob Hopcott
22. “As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.” - Mark Twain
23. “Writing is one of the few careers for which you essentially train yourself, the other two major ones being juggling and pickpocketing.” - Maureen Johnson
24. “All the stories I would like to write persecute me. When I am in my chamber, it seems as if they are all around me, like little devils, and while one tugs at my ear, another tweaks my nose, and each says to me, 'Sir, write me, I am beautiful.” - Umberto Eco
25. “If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework you can still be writing, because you have that space.” - Joyce Carol Oates
26. “Really, becoming a writer sounds more like a mental illness than a professional choice.” - Shannon Hale
27. “It's not about you, it's about the story. It's not about the folks who raise an eyebrow because you're not yet published or not yet J.K. Rowling. It's not about what that lady at church may think or, for that matter, the critics. It's not about the fact that you can't please everyone, and it's sure as heck not about the odds. In the immortal words of Gold Five, "Stay on target." You may or may not be the one who destroys the Death Star. But you're a hero if you get out of your own way, put it all on the line, and try.” - Cynthia Leitich Smith
28. “The free-lance writer is one who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.” - Robert Benchley
29. “I am sifting my memories, the way men pan the dirt under a barroom floor for the bits of gold dust that fall between the cracks. It's small mining-- small mining. You're too young a man to be panning memories, Adam. You should be getting yourself some new ones, so that the mining will be richer when you come to age.” - John Steinbeck
30. “The main thing is to WRITE. Some days it might be 2000 words. Some days you might tinker with two sentences until you get them just right. Both days belong in the writing life. Some days you may watch a ‘Doctor Who’ marathon or become immersed in a book that is so good you can’t stop reading. Some days you may be in love or in mourning. Those days belong in the writing life, too. Live them without guilt.” - L.K. Madigan
31. “Never put off writing until you are better at it.” - Gary Henderson
32. “Writers were blessed stenographers taking divine dictation.” - Stephen King
33. “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot if difference. They don't have to makes speeches. Just believing is usually enough.” - Stephen King
34. “Most of us have a soundtrack running in the background of our lives. I access that soundtrack when I write.” - Robin Helm
35. “In a way, “failure” is just another word for “the journey,” for not being there yet but on the way. It’s the road we walk on to get wherever it is we’re trying to go.” - Sara Zarr
36. “Stories. Character. Dialouge. Entire worlds created on the page. Worlds that could sweep you away or frighten you, make you laugh or cry. Worlds that allowed you to escape to another country or time. Worlds built piece by piece of ink and punctuation.” - Jamie Michaels
37. “I would like to tell you that I wrote my book to push back artistic boundaries. But I didn't. I wrote it to impress a girl.” - Gideon Defoe
38. “I don’t know why the publishers in New York don’t take a tip from Hollywood and just publish the outlines of novels rather than the completed books. Let the audience use their imaginations, as my Maw always says about radio. I would much prefer to read an outline of War and Peace than slog through eight hundred thousand words. Why do I need Tolstoy to describe snow? I can imagine snow, whether Russian snow or just regular snow. But book publishers seem to think that the authors should do all the work, and the readers should be waited on hand-and-foot like a buncha goddamn prima donnas.” - Gary Reilly
39. “It’s a funny thing about writing. You get so balled up in a story idea that you lose your perspective and forget that human being might read your words someday.” - Gary Reilly
40. “My reason for being an author? Because I love to write - it fulfills me. But the fact that I entertain others by doing it is a lovely bonus.” - Chasta Schneider
41. “I hope that I capture something in my work that is about the elusive, the magical and powerful and the transformative. The writing in itself is transformative for me.” - H Raven Rose
42. “Words are powerful. Words make a difference. They can create and destroy. They can open doors and close doors. Words can create illusion or magic, love or destruction. … All those things.” - R.M. Engelhardt
