Write Quotes

In the writer's mind, even a backstory has a backstory.

~ Terry A O'neal

It seems to me that you might create any sort of character in a novel and there would be at least one person in the world just like him. We humans are simply incapable of imagining non-human actions or behavior. It's the writer's fault if we don't believe in his characters as human beings.

~ Sōseki Natsume

My job as a writer is simple. Write a book I’m proud of, and present it as a gift to the world. Some will love it.Some will hate it.That’s the nature of art.

~ Kathleen Baldwin

My job as a writer is simple.Write a book I’m proud of,and present it as a gift to the world.Some will love it.Some will hate it.That’s the nature of art.

~ Kathleen Baldwin

Writers block to me is all the voices in your head trying to tune out the one voice that has something worthy say.

~ Shanet Outing

When you write a story you're telling yourself the story. When you rewrite your main job is taking out all the things that are NOT the story.

~ Stephen King

Writing is such a lonely work that I try to keep myself cheered up.

~ William Zinsser

I'm often dismayed by the sludge I see appearing on my screen if I approach writing as a task--the day's work--and not with some enjoyment.

~ William Zinsser

The writer, his eye on the finish line, never gave enough thought to how to run the race.

~ William Zinsser

The final advantage is the same that applies in every other competitive venture. If you would like to write better than everyone else, you have to want to write better than everyone else. You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft. And you must be willing to defend what you've written against the various middlemen--editors, agents, and publishers--whose sights may be different from yours, whose standards are not as high. Too many writers are browbeaten into settling for less than their best.

~ William Zinsser

Writing might never be an easy act, but with TBL, writers don’t have to go at it alone.

~ Tethered By Letters

Good writing is good writing, whatever form it takes and whatever we call it.

~ William Zinsser

I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning. And if I knock off from this routine for as long as a day, I’m frantic with boredom and a sense of waste. Sundays I have breakfast late and read the papers with Hope. Then we go for a walk in the hills, and I'm haunted by the loss of all that good time. I wake up Sunday mornings and I'm nearly crazy at the prospect of all those unusable hours. I'm restless, I'm bad-tempered, but she's a human being too, you see, so I go. To avoid trouble she makes me leave my watch at home. The result is that I look at my wrist instead. We're walking, she's talking, then I look at my wrist - and that generally does it, if my foul mood hasn't already. She throws in the sponge and we come home. And at home what is there to distinguish Sunday from Thursday? I sit back down at my little Olivetti and start looking at sentences and turning them around. And I ask myself, Why is there no way but this for me to fill my hours?

~ Philip Roth

...being rather unique is no more possible than being rather pregnant.

~ William Zinsser

Most writers sow adjectives almost unconsciously into the soil of their prose to make it more lush and pretty, and the sentences become longer and longer as they fill up with stately elms and frisky kittens and hard-bitten detectives and sleepy lagoons. This is adjective-by-habit - a habit you should get rid of. Not every oak has to be gnarled. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader.

~ William Zinsser

Most writers sow adjectives almost unconsciously into the soil of their prose to make it more lush and pretty, and the sentences become longer and longer as they fill up with stately elms and frisky kittens and hard-bitten detectives and sleepy lagoons. This is adjective-by-habit - a habit you should get rid of. Not every oak has to be gnarled. The adjective exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader.

~ William Zinsser

Don't just write a strong female protagonist. Be one.

~ A.d. Posey

Is every writer's keyboard a spill magnet?

~ A.d. Posey

Some days you live in pajamas, and your hair kind-of has that Albert Einstein look.

~ A.d. Posey

I want to lay under the blanket of sky and laugh while the stars wink and we write our story.

~ A.d. Posey

Listen to what the sky is telling you.

~ A.d. Posey

Life tells the most beautiful stories.

~ A.d. Posey

Your life should always come with hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry on top.

~ A.d. Posey

Your life is a story. Write the one you want to read.

~ A.d. Posey

I chose to be a writer no more than I chose to be female.

~ A.d. Posey

Anytime I was denying my inner self, I knew absolutely nothing.

~ A.d. Posey

Everyone has scars. Cowards conceal them. The brave reveal them.

~ A.d. Posey

Fame is neither something to value nor to view as a threat.

~ A.d. Posey

Sometimes you just have to hold each other’s hands and walk through it all.

~ A.d. Posey

You’re with you 24/7, you must love you the most.

~ A.d. Posey

Walk in truth. Leave footprints of honesty.

~ A.d. Posey

There’s nothing like the gift of understanding.

~ A.d. Posey

When we hear our souls speak, we are free.

~ A.d. Posey

Every painting tells a story.

~ A.d. Posey

Surround yourself with those conducive to you being your highest self.

~ A.d. Posey

Be the spark.

~ A.d. Posey

It’s great to be here.

~ A.d. Posey

Love is the universal language.

~ A.d. Posey

Everything that is old was once new.

~ A.d. Posey

Work with yourself.

~ A.d. Posey