43 Quotes On Writing

For writers, inspiration can come from many sources: personal experiences, the people they meet, or the books they read. Yet, sometimes the words of fellow authors can spark a fire in our creative minds. This blog post brings together a curated collection of the top 43 quotes on writing. Each quote offers a nugget of wisdom, a touch of humor, or a dose of motivation to help you persevere through the peaks and valleys of the writing journey. Whether you’re a seasoned novelist or a budding blogger, these quotes are sure to resonate and inspire. Dive in and let the eloquence of these literary greats guide you on your path to crafting your own masterpieces.

1. “I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb.” - Herman Melville

2. “I am simply of the opinion that you cannot be taught to write. You have to spend a lifetime in love with words.” - Craig Claiborne

3. “I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read.” - Philip Pullman

4. “The pen is the tongue of the mind.” - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

5. “There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.” - Stephen King

6. “Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.” - Mark Twain

7. “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” - Virginia Woolf

8. “To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.” - Robert Frost

9. “You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

10. “When King Lear dies in act five, do you know what Shakespeare has written? He has written, 'He dies.' No more. No fanfare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential piece of dramatic literature is, 'He dies.' Now I am not asking you to be happy at my leaving but all I ask you to do is to turn the page and let the next story begin.-- Mr. Magorium” - Suzanne Weyn

11. “I don't think anybody can teach anybody anything. I think that you learn it, but the young writer that is as I say demon-driven and wants to learn and has got to write, he don't know why, he will learn from almost any source that he finds. He will learn from older people who are not writers, he will learn from writers, but he learns it -- you can't teach it.” - William Faulkner

12. “Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious."[Ten rules for writing fiction, The Guardian, 20 February 2010 (with Diana Athill, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Helen Dunmore, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Esther Freud, Neil Gaiman, David Hare, and AL Kennedy)]” - P. D. James

13. “If you've got a message, send a telegram.” - Samuel Goldwyn

14. “V.S. Pritchett's definition of a short story is 'something glimpsed from the corner of the eye, in passing.' Notice the 'glimpse' part of this. First the glimpse. Then the glimpse gives life, turned into something that illuminates the moment and may, if we're lucky -- that word again -- have even further ranging consequences and meaning. The short story writer's task is to invest the glimpse with all that is in his power. He'll bring his intelligence and literary skill to bear (his talent), his sense of proportion and sense of the fitness of things: of how things out there really are and how he sees those things -- like no one else sees them. And this is done through the use of clear and specific language, language used so as to bring to life the details that will light up the story for the reader. For the details to be concrete and convey meaning, the language must be accurate and precisely given. The words can be so precise they may even sound flat, but they can still carry; if used right they can hit all the notes.” - Raymond Carver

15. “I suggest to my students that they write under a pseudonym for a week. That allows young men to write as women, and women as men. It allows them a lot of freedom they don't have ordinarily.” - Joyce Carol Oates

16. “I am a writer of books in retrospect. I talk in order to understand; I teach in order to learn” - Robert Frost

17. “If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?” - Joyce Carol Oates

18. “The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.” - Stephen King

19. “Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.” - Bertrand Russell

20. “Use the right word, not its second cousin.” - Mark Twain

21. “Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass.” - Bernard Cornwall

22. “The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies.” - William Faulkner

23. “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascendThe brightest heaven of invention,A kingdom for a stage, princes to actAnd monarchs to behold the swelling scene!Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fireCrouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,The flat unraised spirits that have daredOn this unworthy scaffold to bring forthSo great an object: can this cockpit holdThe vasty fields of France? or may we cramWithin this wooden O the very casquesThat did affright the air at Agincourt?O, pardon! since a crooked figure mayAttest in little place a million;And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,On your imaginary forces work.Suppose within the girdle of these wallsAre now confined two mighty monarchies,Whose high upreared and abutting frontsThe perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;Into a thousand parts divide on man,And make imaginary puissance;Think when we talk of horses, that you see themPrinting their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,Turning the accomplishment of many yearsInto an hour-glass: for the which supply,Admit me Chorus to this history;Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.” - William Shakespeare

24. “Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.” - Edward Albee

25. “- I don't want to be a writer so I can write about my life. I want to be a writer to escape from it. + Then you shouldn't be a writer.” - Candace Bushnell

26. “You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.” - Gustave Flaubert

27. “I am an author of Christian Fantasy. My first 7 books were Christian Romance, but I came over to the Dark Side when I heard there were cookies.” - Donita K. Paul

28. “Is imagination dependent upon experience, or is experience influenced by imagination?” - Anita Shreve

29. “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

30. “Writers were blessed stenographers taking divine dictation.” - Stephen King

31. “A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.” - Oscar Wilde

32. “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

33. “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

34. “If I don't write it, they can't buy it.” - Connie Cox

35. “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.” - Mark Twain

36. “The man is in his work,read it if you want to know about him.” - R.M. Engelhardt

37. “To Grandma,for being my first editor and giving me the best writing advice I’ve ever received: “Christopher, I think you should wait until you’re done with elementary school before worrying about being a failed writer.” - Chris Colfer

38. “Most of the ideas I’ve gotten for novels or screenplays have occurred to me while I was either shaving or taking a bath. A number have occurred to me while I was driving 127. I rarely get ideas when seated in front of my typewriter, which I find ironic because I have always suspected that typing somehow plays a key role in writing.” - Gary Reilly

39. “I write because I am a writer, not because I want to get anything out of it.” - H Raven Rose

40. “Any writer who puts his words and thoughts out into the public is going to be criticized.” - Thomas Moore

41. “Pay attention, and use your imagination.” - R.M. Engelhardt

42. “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

43. “For me the poem and the poetry open mic isn’t about competition and it never will be. Honestly? It's wrong. The open mic is about 1 poet, one fellow human being up on a stage or behind a podium sharing their work regardless of what form or style they bring to it. In other words? The guy with the low slam score is more than likely a far better poet-writer than the guy who actually won. But who are you? I ? Or really anyone else to judge them? The Poetry Slam has become an overgrown, over used monopoly on American literature and poetry and is now over utilized by the academic & public school establishments. And over the years has sadly become the "McDonalds Of Poetry". We can only hope that the same old stale atmosphere of it all eventually becomes or evolves into something new that translates to and from the written page and that gives new poets with different styles & authentic voices a chance to share their work too.” - R.M. Engelhardt