Writing Quotes

If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing. A writer who appreciates the seriousness of writing so little that he is anxious to make people see he is formally educated, cultured or well-bred is merely a popinjay. And this too remember; a serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

~ Ernest Hemingway

The financial value put on the job of the writer and the misconceptions around that make it extremely difficult to enter the profession.

~ Sara Sheridan

Art is the bridge across the gap between peoples and cultures. Writing is one of the arts that can help link people.

~ Charles Ray

I would say about 80% of my writing (including posts and blogs), has to do with unresolved anger and that's just fine with me

~ Lori Lesko

She looked at the last thing she had written and she felt calm. Then she crossed the words out vehemently, scribbling until even the shape of the sentence was destroyed.

~ Helen Oyeyemi

There are some places you can't visit anymore,poetry and writings take you there.

~ Vaishal Sheth

Thinking before writing how I feel. That's how I'm able to write all the lies and wrongs. How else can one write something like a fake smile ?

~ Muhammad Faizan Khan.

My existence began the day you were created and was realized the day we met.

~ Crystal Woods

I know nothing of writing books properly. I write in the same manner I live life: one feeling at a time. If this makes me a bad writer, then I might hope to author several bad books.

~ Cara Rosalie Olsen

I count myself as one of the number of those who learn as they write and write as they learn.

~ John Piper

The more good ideas you have, the more good ideas you will get.

~ Audrey Moralez

Writing is a never ending journey for me - not only for my own comfort, but as a strong medium for encouraging a healthy process of constructive thinking among my readers

~ Debalina Haldar

Writing to corroborate what you already think is the essence of bad writing.

~ Victor Lavalle

In flight from intellectual heaviness, [he] arrives at intelligent weightlessness. Every notion is flipped this way and that; the answer to every question is yes and no; the proliferating examples from all the arts...overwhelm the observations that they are designed to illustrate; the general impression in one of uncontrollable articulateness. [He] does not think his thoughts; he convenes them. There is not a sign of struggle anywhere.

~ Leon Wieseltier

Sometimes, we think faster than what you write.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

I am a lifelong lover of form–content interplay, and this book is no exception. As with several of my previous books, I have had the chance to typeset it down to the finest level of detail, and my quest for visual elegance on each page has had countless repercussions on how I phrase my ideas. To some this may sound like the tail wagging the dog, but I think that attention to form improves anyone’s writing. I hope that reading this book not only is stimulating intellectually but also is a pleasant visual experience.

~ Douglas R. Hofstadter

The thing I've learned is that thinking is not writing.

~ Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Don't exercise your freedom of speech until you have exercised your freedom of thought.

~ Tim Fargo

I tried to think outside the box but couldn't open the lid.

~ Alan Dapre

Yes, writing comes easy for me and it's also a painful, arduous process. I love writing. I hate writing. I never want to write again, and I want to write all day, everyday.

~ Tyrone Jaeger

Hatred, like a bush fire, ultimately consumes those who propagate it, leaving nothing but scorched, barren earth behind in their hearts. Love, the greatest of reckless endeavours, inspires men to greatness in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds... Maybe this book is just that, a reckless endeavour of the heart.

~ Stephen Lee

We are all too fixed on wrecking ourselves rather than bettering ourselves.

~ Meggie Royer

A novelist's characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them.

~ Anthony Trollope

The womb of the world births us. My filth comes from the same earthwork that gives rise to all stories. My interior light connects me with all the other creatures that inhabit this world of rocks, air, grass, woods, and water. My genetic code links me inextricably with all of nature. I enter the medley in the river of life with the ability to respond as life unfolds before my childlike eyes. My homemade medicinal poultice might not be of any benefit to other people. Nonetheless, we should each write our stories because each of us aims to attain a greater degree of awareness of our own authenticity. We owe a moral obligation to our family, friends, and ourselves as well as to the community to make a determined effort to wring the most out of life. We must applaud all efforts to investigate the human condition. Even if my writing amounts to nothing more than a clumsy attempt to travel the same tracks other people burnished with much more insight, clarity, precision, and style, it is an act of self-definition to ascribe to any philosophy. Philosophy represents a living charter; it is a life of action.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

But as I began to write this book, I realised that without the whole truth my life would have no power, no real meaning. With the help of my mother, the memories of our lives in North Korea and China cane back to me like scenes from a forgotten nightmare. Some of the images reappeared with a terrible clarity; others were hazy, or scrambled like a deck of cards spilled on the floor. The process of writing has been the process of remembering, and of trying to make sense out of those memories.

~ Yeonmi Park

I write because I can remember and to keep those memories alive. I write for pleasure. I write because I must.

~ F.m. Burgett

Actors are good liars, writers are good liars with good memories.

~ Daniel Keys Moran

We place memories on pieces of paper to know they will always exist.

~ Nathan Filer

The palest ink will endure beyond the memories of man

~ Tan Twan Eng

You can't be beautiful and a writer, because to be a writer you have to be the one doing the looking; if you're beautiful people will be looking at you.

~ Niall Williams

It is the kernel of truth in every story that makes its writing beautiful beyond standards.

~ Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

There are exactly as many special occasions in life as we choose to celebrate.

~ Robert Brault

To be original is not creating your own idea, it's the essence of the idea in the reader's mind.

~ Kaela Marooney

I write because I'm free,because I can,because I will. I write because I must,because I'm breathing,because I'd go crazy otherwise,because it's who I am.I write to make a statement,to share my thoughts,to discover myself,to express my ideas.But most of all, I write for future generations.I write for love. I write to inspire.I write to encourage. I write for me.

~ Nadège Richards

You should spend more time reading the Good Book and less reading all those novels. What are you going to tell the Lord on Judgement Day when He asks you why you didn't read your bible?

~ Jennifer Donnelly

I suppose one has to be desperate, to be a successful writer. One has to reach a rock-bottom at which one can afford to let everything go hang. One has got to damn the public, chance one's living, say what one thinks, and be oneself. Then something may come out.

~ T.h. White

All the same, writing honestly is very difficult. The more I try to be honest, the farther my words sink into darkness.

~ Haruki Murakami

Honesty is easier when you have no face and no real name. And honesty, for me, is very easy on paper.

~ Katherine Reay

When a man talks from the heart, in his moment of truth, he speaks poetry.

~ Ray Bradbury

I'll only tell you what matters. And, the truth is, everything matters.

~ Crystal Woods