J.K. Rowling Author Quotes on Writing

J.K. Rowling Author Quotes on Writing

“I write what amuses me. It’s totally for myself. I never in my wildest dreams expected this popularity. There’s no formula.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer Quotes about Writing

“The wastepaper basket is the writer’s best friend.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer Quotes about Writing
Thomas Mann Author Quotes

Thomas Mann Author Quotes

“The task of a writer consists in being able to make something out of an idea.”

Alexei Panshin Quotes about Writing

“No tale tells all.”

Alexei Panshin Quotes about Writing
George Moore Author Quotes

George Moore Author Quotes

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.”

Somerset Maugham Quotes about Writing

“There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what they are.”

Somerset Maugham Quotes about Writing
Darrell Schweitzer Author Quotes

Darrell Schweitzer Author Quotes

“If you don’t know it, don’t write it.”

Rosemary Mahoney Quotes about Writing

“Writing is not a genteel profession; it’s quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty.”

Rosemary Mahoney Quotes about Writing
Stephen Leigh Author Quotes

Stephen Leigh Author Quotes

“You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer…”

Rudyard Kipling Quotes about Writing

“Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

Rudyard Kipling Quotes about Writing
John Kieran Author Quotes

John Kieran Author Quotes

“I am a part of all I have read.”

Franklin Jones Quotes about Writing

“Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.”

Franklin Jones Quotes about Writing
Thomas Jefferson Author Quotes

Thomas Jefferson Author Quotes

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

Eugene Ionesco Writing Quotes for Authors

“A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.”

Eugene Ionesco Writing Quotes for Authors
Oliver Herford Author Quotes

Oliver Herford Author Quotes

“Manuscript: something submitted in haste and returned at leisure.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Writing Quotes for Authors

“I never dare to write as funny as I can.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Writing Quotes for Authors
Harold Hayes Author Quotes

Harold Hayes Author Quotes

“The essence of drama is that man cannot walk away from the consequences of his own deeds.”

Robert A. Heinlein Writing Quotes for Authors

“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.”

Robert A. Heinlein Writing Quotes for Authors
Christopher Hampton Author Quotes

Christopher Hampton Author Quotes

“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.”

E. M. Forster Writing Quotes for Authors

“A novel must give a sense of permanence as well as a sense of life.”

E. M. Forster Writing Quotes for Authors
L. Sprague de Camp Author Quotes

L. Sprague de Camp Author Quotes

“There is no mistaking the dismay on the face of a writer who has just heard that his brain child is a deformed idiot.”

Ellen Datlow Editing Quotes

“Never throw up on an editor.”

Ellen Datlow Editing Quotes
Joseph Conrad Author Quotes

Joseph Conrad Author Quotes

“A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.”

Richard Curtis Writing Quotes

“Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks.”

Richard Curtis Writing Quotes
Octavia E. Butler Writing Quotes

Octavia E. Butler Writing Quotes

“I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.”

Gloria Steinem Author Quotes for Writers

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”

Gloria Steinem Author Quotes for Writers
Gao Xingjian Writing Quotes

Gao Xingjian Writing Quotes

“Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.”

E B White Quotes for Writers

“Be obscure clearly.”

E B White Quotes for Writers
P.G. Wodehouse Writing Quotes

P.G. Wodehouse Writing Quotes

“I just sit at my typewriter and curse a bit.”

Mark Twain Quotes for Writers

“It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.”

Mark Twain Quotes for Writers
Mary Lee Settle Writing Quotes

Mary Lee Settle Writing Quotes

“I start with a question. Then try to answer it.”

Top Salman Rushdie Author Quotes for Writers

“Until you know who you are you can’t write.”

Top Salman Rushdie Author Quotes for Writers
George Orwell Writing Quotes

George Orwell Writing Quotes

“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”

Top Ernest Gaines Author Quotes for Writers

“The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.”

Top Ernest Gaines Author Quotes for Writers
Abraham Lincoln Writing Quotes

Abraham Lincoln Writing Quotes

“Writing—the art of communicating thoughts to the mind, through the eye—is the great invention of the world.”

Top Ernest Gaines Author Quotes for Writers

“The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.”

Top Ernest Gaines Author Quotes for Writers
Athol Fugard Writing Quotes

Athol Fugard Writing Quotes

“Love is the only energy I’ve ever used as a writer. I’ve never written out of anger, although anger has informed love.”

Top William Cobbett Author Quotes for Writers

“Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think about what you shall write.”

Top William Cobbett Author Quotes for Writers
Gwendolyn Brooks Writing Quotes

Gwendolyn Brooks Writing Quotes

“Writing is a delicious agony.”

Best Gerald Brenan Author Quotes for Writers

“It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer.”

Best Gerald Brenan Author Quotes for Writers
Margaret Atwood Writing Quotes

Margaret Atwood Writing Quotes

“If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.”

Best Terry Pratchett Author Quotes for Writers

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”

Best Terry Pratchett Author Quotes for Writers
Wally Lamb Quotes on Writing

Wally Lamb Quotes on Writing

“If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.”

Best Emily Dickinson Author Quotes for Writers

“The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul—BOOKS.”

Best Emily Dickinson Author Quotes for Writers
Quotes on Editing

Quotes on Editing

“There are 2 typos of people in this world: Those who can edit and those who can’t.”

Best Nathaniel Hawthonre Author Quotes for Writers

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

Best Nathaniel Hawthonre Author Quotes for Writers
Quotes for Writers by Jim Harrison

Quotes for Writers by Jim Harrison

“Being a writer requires an intoxication with language.”

Paul Coelho Author Quotes for Writers

“I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.”

Paul Coelho Author Quotes for Writers
Top Author Quotes for Writers by Nicholas Sparks

Top Author Quotes for Writers by Nicholas Sparks

“I suppose I’m most influenced by any good, commercial writer. I learn from everyone.”

Karl Marx Author Quotes

“The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.”

Karl Marx Author Quotes for Writers
Top Author Quotes for Writers by Orson Scott Card

Top Author Quotes for Writers by Orson Scott Card

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”

Anne McCaffrey Author Quotes

“Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.”

Anne McCaffrey Author Quotes for Writers
Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.”

Isaac Asimov Author Quotes

“Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil—but there is no way around them.”

Isaac Asimov Author Quotes
Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Oscar Wilde

Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Oscar Wilde

“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”

Flannery O’Connor Author Quotes

“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.”

Flannery O’Connor Author Quotes
Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Anthony Burgess

Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Anthony Burgess

“Literature is all, or mostly, about sex.”

Ursula K. Le Guin Author Quotes

“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.”

Ursula K. Le Guin Author Quotes
Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Henry Miller

Famous Author Quotes for Writers by Henry Miller

“Writing is its own reward.”

Gustave Flaubert Author Quotes

“I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.”

Gustave Flaubert Author Quotes
Famous Author Quotes for Writers by William Faulkner

Famous Author Quotes for Writers by William Faulkner

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

Barbara Kingsolver Author Quotes

“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”

Barbara Kingsolver Author Quotes
Author Quotes for Writers by Ayn Rand

Author Quotes for Writers by Ayn Rand

“Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.”

Russell Baker Author Quotes

“The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn’t require any.”

Russell Baker Author Quotes
Author Quotes for Writers by Douglas Adams

Author Quotes for Writers by Douglas Adams

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

Ray Bradbury Author Quotes

“First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!”

Ray Bradbury Author Quotes
Author Quotes for Writers by David Brin

Author Quotes for Writers by David Brin

“If you have other things in your life—family, friends, good productive day work—these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.”

Author Quotes on Writing by C. J. Cherryh

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.”

Author Quotes on Writing by C. J. Cherryh
Author Quotes for Writers by Herman Melville

Author Quotes for Writers by Herman Melville

“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.”

Author Quotes on Writing by Stephen King

“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.”

Author Quotes on Writing by Stephen King
Author Quotes for Writers by Richard Bach

Author Quotes for Writers by Richard Bach

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Thomas Jefferson

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Thomas Jefferson
Author Quotes on Writing by Mark Twain

Author Quotes on Writing by Mark Twain

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Ray Bradbury

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Ray Bradbury
Author Quotes on Writing by Ernest Hemingway

Author Quotes on Writing by Ernest Hemingway

“Write drunk, edit sober.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Isabel Allende

“Writing is a process, a journey into memory and the soul.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Isabel Allende
Author Quotes on Writing by Toni Morrison

Author Quotes on Writing by Toni Morrison

“Writing is really a way of thinking — not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Ann Patchett

“Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Ann Patchett
Author Quotes on Writing by Anaïs Nin

Author Quotes on Writing by Anaïs Nin

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Octavia E. Butler

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Octavia E. Butler
Author Quotes on Writing by Arundhati Roy

Author Quotes on Writing by Arundhati Roy

“I do what I do, and write what I write, without calculating what is worth what and so on. Fortunately, I am not a banker or an accountant. I feel that there is a time when a political statement needs to be made and I make it.”

Author Quotes about Writing by Rainbow Rowell

“Sometimes writing is running downhill, your fingers jerking behind you on the keyboard the way your legs do when they can’t quite keep up with gravity.”

Author Quotes on Writing by Rainbow Rowell
Author Quotes Philip Roth

Author Quotes: Philip Roth

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.”

Author Quotes —Jack Kerouac

“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”

Author Quotes Jack Kerouac
Author Quotes Hunter S. Thompson

Author Quotes: Hunter S. Thompson

“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.”

Author Quotes —Roald Dahl

“I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.”

Author Quotes Roald Dahl
Author Quotes Ernest Hemingway

Author Quotes: Ernest Hemingway

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

Author Quotes —Virginia Woolf

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”

Author Quotes Virginia Woolf
Author Quotes Maya Angelou

Author Quotes: Maya Angelou

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

Author Quotes —Douglas Adams

“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”

Author Quotes Douglas Adams
Author Quotes Ray Bradbury

Author Quotes: Ray Bradbury

“A book has got smell. A new book smells great. An old book smells even better. An old book smells like ancient Egypt.”

Author Quotes on Writing: Stephen King

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Author Quotes on Writing
Author Quotes on Writing by Sylvia Plath

Writing Quotes: Sylvia Plath

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Author Quotes on Writing: Meg Cabot

“Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.”

Meg Cabot Author Quotes on Writing
Author Quotes by Isabel Allende

Author Writing Quotes: Isabel Allende

“Write what should not be forgotten.”

Author Quotes on Writing: Maya Angelou

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Maya Angelou Author Quotes on Writing
Author Quotes by Harper Lee

Author Writing Quotes by Harper Lee

“I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”

Vladimir Nabokov Greatest Author Quotes on Writing

“The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.”

Vladimir Nabokov Greatest Author Quotes on Writing
Best Author Quotes by Edgar Allen Poe

Best Author Quotes by Edgar Allen Poe

“A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.”