Writer Quotes · Page 365

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.

— Henry David Thoreau

I do not just write, I write what I am. If there is a secret, perhaps that is it.

— Jose Saramago

“She handles the books tenderly, a glow of utter devotion on here face.”

— Kim Church

Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We write because we have to, not because we want to”

— Steve Berry

I'm usually writing about survival. I never planned it, but it runs through all my books.

— Mark Kurlansky

Robert Jordan, whether he's writing with passion or not, I don't know.

— Terri Windling

I was anticipating that some readers might misread [the book] ROOM itself as a hymn to homeschooling.

— Emma Donoghue

I don't believe other people are ever as foolishly excited as I am while I'm working. How could they be? Writers would…

— Katherine Mansfield

All good writers express the state of their souls, even (as occurs in some cases of very good writers) if it is…

— Anonymous

I write as a function. Without it I would fall ill and die. It's as much a part of one as the…

— Charles Bukowski

I'd chosen to dedicate my life to writing, and I asked myself, 'if you write your whole life, and nobody ever sees…

— Nathan Englander

“I have never believed in the axiom that a writer should first and foremost write about what he knows. I think it’s…

— William Trevor

“Keep a journal of disappointments, failures, and self-destructive actions. It’s important to write this down because these are the kinds of things…

— Richard O'Connor

“Good writers are avid readers. They have absorbed a vast inventory of words, idioms, constructions, tropes, and rhetorical tricks,”

— Steven Pinker

I'm not too easily distracted now I've had practice, but I write with nothing to look at. I used to rent an…

— Jane Goldman

“People are like books, and the world is like a library. Some believe that it is important to be known with the…

— Varg Vikernes

I think that if writers are tempted to do other things, they ought to go do other things. They should not write…

— Garrison Keillor

I've had to really teach myself that when you're not feeling it, you shouldn't write anything down because you're going to end…

— Corey Taylor

“This is man: a writer of books, a putter-down of words, a painter of pictures, a maker of ten thousand philosophies. He…

— Thomas Wolfe

Writing is a strange and solitary activity. There are dispiriting times when you start working on the first few pages of a…

— Patrick Modiano

I write about five thousand words a day, when working on a book, about three thousand a day if I'm writing a…

— Eric Brown

What profession is more trying than that of author? After you finish a piece of work it only seems good to you…

— Anonymous

the compulsion to read and write - and it seems to me it should be, even must be, a compulsion - is…

— Lorrie Moore

“Is it possible to write a reverent novel," said Nassrin, "and to have it be good?...”

— Azar Nafisi

Bad books always lie. They lie most of all about the human condition.

— Walker Percy

The books housed in one's first adult bookshelf are the geological bed of who we wish to become

— Sheridan Hay

“One idea to a sentence is still the best advice that anyone has ever given on writing.”

— Bill Bryson

It's okay to be a bad writer if you have something to say.

— Bill Stott

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

— Haruki Murakami

The modernness of all good books seems to give men an existence as wide as man.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

What some people find in religion a writer may find in his craft...a kind of breaking through to glory.

— John Steinbeck

A day of bad writing is always better than a day of no writing.

— Don Roff

“No one can teach you how to write. A writer writes, plain and simple. You improve by doing.”

— Scott Ciencin

“There are so many good books waiting to be read, I’ll never go back and read one twice.”

— Deb Baker

“Fiction allows you to go deeper into the truth. You can put anything down and you can take chances.”

— Peter Matthieson

When I wrote 'Dear Fatty,' I realised that sitting and writing alone is an absolute joy.

— Dawn French

I can't lie and say there are no bad writers. Sorry, but there are lots of bad writers.

— Stephen King

I have more to say as a writer than from behind a wok.

— Eddie Huang

“People live in my head. If they do anything interesting, don't worry, I write it down for ya.”

— Lauren DeStefano