Writing By Writers Quotes

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

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Teaching

  30 Copy quote

• To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

  Truman Capote

  Music, Writing, Creativity

  Truman Capote, M. Thomas Inge (1987). “Truman Capote: Conversations”, p.88, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  28 Copy quote

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

  Philip Roth

  Work, Writing, Sisterhood

  1979 In the NewYorkTimes Book Review,15 Jul.

  61 Copy quote

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• The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.

  Mary Heaton Vorse

  Art, Writing, Pants

  45 Copy quote

• The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He's entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused; maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been wasted, you're in violation.

  Larry Niven

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  48 Copy quote

• The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Friendship, Writing, Waste

  9 Copy quote

• Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

  Franz Kafka

  Hate, Obsession, Intense

  Franz Kafka (1995). “The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories”, Random House LLC

  41 Copy quote

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• When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.

  Stephen King

  Hurt, Children, Writing

  9 Copy quote

• It ain't whatcha write, it's the way atcha write it.

  Jack Kerouac

  Writing, Way, Inspiration To Write

  Jack Kerouac (1995). “The Portable Jack Kerouac”, Viking Adult

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• The first sentence cant be written until the final sentence is written.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Writing, Firsts, Finals

  Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Milazzo (1989). “Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates”, p.140, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.

  Mark Twain

  Flower, Writing, Simple

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.65, Chartwell

  40 Copy quote

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• Writing is turning one's worst moments into money.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Writing, Worst Moments, Writing Fiction

  Quoted in Playboy, May 1979

  21 Copy quote

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• If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Writing, Odds, Stories

  "King of the Jungle" by John J. Miller, reason.com. August/September 1999.

  25 Copy quote

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• There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.

  H. L. Mencken

  Writing, Dull, Subjects

  8 Copy quote

• It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Fall, Writing

  Samuel Johnson (1966). “Johnsonian miscellanies”, Constable

  9 Copy quote

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• The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Writing, Two, Familiar

  14 Copy quote

• How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Beautiful, Book

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.8, Penguin

  23 Copy quote

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• I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.

  Peter De Vries

  Work, Writing, Written Word

  85 Copy quote

• 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

  Writing, Together, Using Words

  11 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

  12 Copy quote

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• Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Writing, Editors, Rejection

  Kurt Vonnegut (1982). “Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage”, Dell Books

  91 Copy quote

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• Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on.

  John Steinbeck

  Writing, Paper, Excuse

  13 Copy quote

• I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters.

  James A. Michener

  Writing, World, Want

  39 Copy quote

• All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery.

  George Orwell

  Selfish, Lying, Writing

  1946 'Why I Write'.

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• 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.

  David Brin

  Writing, Family Friends, Family Life

  6 Copy quote