Writers Block Quotes

• You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

  Jack London

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

  Jack London (2015). “Jack London on Adventure: Words of Wisdom from an Expert Adventurer”, p.5, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The secret of getting ahead is getting started

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.

  Maya Angelou

  Cat, Writing, Two

  "Famous Writers Share How They Handle Writer’s Block" by Jeryl Brunner, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 29, 2015.

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• writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all

  Charles Bukowski

  Block, Writing, Writer's Block

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• The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Life, New Beginnings

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• I think writer's block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out.

  Roy Blount, Jr.

  Block, Believe, Inspiration

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• Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, Effort, Needs

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.25, Anchor

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• The scariest moment is always just before you start.

  Stephen King

  Travel, Writing, Worst Moments

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• A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

  Thomas Mann

  Writing, People, Difficult

  "Essays of Three Decades". Book by Thomas Mann, 1942.

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• There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't write.

  Terry Pratchett

  Block, Writing, California

  Interview with SFBC's Joyce Wiley, www.lspace.org. 1996.

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• I haven't had writer's block. I think it's because my process involves writing very badly.

  Jennifer Egan

  Block, Writing, Thinking

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• That famous writer’s block is a myth as far as I’m concerned. I think bad writers must have a great difficulty writing. They don’t want to do it. They have become writers out of reasons of ambition. It must be a great strain to them to make marks on a page when they really have nothing much to say, and don’t enjoy doing it. I’m not so sure what I have to say but I certainly enjoy making sentences.

  Gore Vidal

  Block, Writing, Ambition

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Aug 06, 2012

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• Never stop writing because you have run out of ideas.

  Walter Benjamin

  Running, Writing, Ideas

  Walter Benjamin, Michael William Jennings, Edmund Jephcott (2016). “One-Way Street”, p.47, Harvard University Press

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• Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.

  Daniel Pinkwater

  Fun, Writing, Writer's Block

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• Writer’s block is my unconscious mind telling me that something I’ve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what I’ve already written so that when I write it again, it is believable and interesting to me. Then I can go on. Writer’s block is never solved by forcing oneself to “write through it,” because you haven’t solved the problem that caused your unconscious mind to rebel against the story, so it still won’t work – for you or for the reader.

  Orson Scott Card

  Block, Writing, Interesting

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• If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Perfect, Ifs

  FaceBook post by Margaret Atwood from May 05, 2014

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• It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.

  C. J. Cherryh

  Writing, Long, Garbage

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• Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Inspiration, Writing, Talking

  E. L. Doctorow, Christopher D. Morris (1999). “Conversations with E.L. Doctorow”, p.9, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

  Robert Benchley

  Writing, Men, Pieces

  James Thurber, The Bermudian Magazine, November 1950.

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• If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be.

  Hilary Mantel

  Party, Sleep, Exercise

  FaceBook post by Hilary Mantel from Nov 03, 2012

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• I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

  Elmore Leonard

  Writing, Trying, Reader

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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

  Ernest Hemingway

  Writing, Humility, Crafts

  "New York Journal-American" Newspaper, July 11, 1961.

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• When I'm writing, I write. And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I'll come.'

  Maya Angelou

  Writing, Serious, Muse

  "Famous Writers Share How They Handle Writer’s Block" by Jeryl Brunner, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 29, 2015.

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• Just write every day of your life. Read intensely.

  Ray Bradbury

  Writing, Writer's Block, Writing Every Day

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• The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day ... you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don't think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Writing, Tired, Thinking

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