Writing Quotes

Writers are writing in every corner of the globe.Writers are writing, moreover, in rich countries and poor countries alike.

~ Minae Mizumura

Reflective writing produces distinct rewards. A writer does not claim to live exclusively in the moment. A pensive writer retreats into oneself in noble attempt to meld memory, thought, faith, doubt, and other strong emotions into thought capsules while exploring the inscrutable web of creation.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

If the writer believes that our life is and will remain essentially mysterious, if he looks upon us as beings existing in a created order to whose laws we freely respond, then what he sees on the surface will be of interest to him only as he can go through it into an experience of mystery itself. His kind of fiction will always be pushing its own limits outward toward the limits of mystery, because for this kind of writer, the meaning of a story does not begin except at a depth where adequate motivation and adequate psychology and the various determinations have been exhausted. Such a writer will be interested in what we don't understand rather than in what we do. He will be interested in possibility rather than probability. He will be interested in characters who are forced out to meet evil and grace and who act on a trust beyond themselves—whether they know clearly what it is they act upon or not.

~ Flannery O'connor

Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method.— Walter Benjamin, Unpacking My Library

~ Phillip Lopate

What importance should be given to details, in developing a subject?--Remorselessly sacrifice everything that does not contribute to clarity, verisimilitude, and effect.Accentuate everything that sets the main idea in relief, so that the impression be colourful, picturesque. It's sufficient that the rest be in its proper place, but in half-tone. That is what gives to style, as to painting, unity, perspective, and effect.- Constantin Georges Romain Héger, teacher to Charlotte Brontë

~ Claire Harman

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

~ William Zinsser

Storytelling is a gift, but writing is a learned art.

~ Beem Weeks

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

Writing is something you Do and not discuss. Talk is cheap, wishes are free and a fool is included with every purchase. So spend your time wisely.

~ Jaime Reed

...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

Writers really don't retire, you know. They have to be taken out and shot.

~ James Salter

[EM] Forster was the only living writer whom he would have described as his master. In other people’s books he found examples of style which he wanted to imitate and learn from. In Forster he found a key to the whole art of writing. The Zen masters of archery—of whom, in those days, Christopher had never heard—start by teaching you the mental attitude with which you must pick up the bow. A Forster novel taught Christopher the mental attitude with which he must pick up the pen.

~ Christopher Isherwood

Great writers teach as well as entertain.

~ Beem Weeks

She had her image… and anything added to that would be mere verse-making. Something might come of it some day. In the meanwhile she had got her mood on to paper—and this is the release that all writers, even the feeblest, seek for as men seek for love; and, having found it, they doze off happily into dreams and trouble their hearts no further.

~ Dorothy L. Sayers

I've never tried to be famous or become a bestseller, just rich and remembered. The rest is a bonus.

~ Daniel Marques

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

The best stories are like the best burgers: big, juicy, and messy.

~ 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