Writing Quotes · Page 570

I've never liked the publishing world's determination to pigeonhole every writer into a genre.

— Joe R. Lansdale

The call to write does not respect background or experience.

— Allen Wier

Will Fortune never come with both hands full, But write her fair words still in foulest terms?

— William Shakespeare

The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself

— William Faulkner

Therefore we say that a lying Spirit has been in the mouth of the writers of the books of the Bible.

— Thomas Paine

Writers talk about the agony of writing; I talk about the agony of not writing.

— Laura Z. Hobson

“The only prerequisites for a writer are a word processor and thick skin.”

— Mark Bell

I would love to just write and not have everything I say or do turn into a political battle.

— N. K. Jemisin

History is imperfect and biased, and it always, always has omissions. The most common omissions are the bits that the writer of…

— Tansy Rayner Roberts

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.

— Robert Morgan

Being in a band was so fun and exciting, but I was just kind of focusing more on performance and wasn't really…

— Domino Kirke

Being a journalist is good if you want to write books: it teaches you to get beyond the blank screen. My books…

— Sophie Kinsella

“There’s nothing I need or want to know from the writers I admire that isn’t in their books. It’s better to read…

— John Irving

I've been working on my own music. I've been writing an album, stuff that's kind of personal to my own life.

— Ariel Winter

A phrase may come to me as I am walking, and, once I write it down in my journal, the rest of…

— Stephen Vincent Benet

“I'm 68 years old, and somebody asked if I'm retired. I told him, "No, I'll still be writing long after I'm dead.”

— Ron Brackin

Anytime you adapt work of somebody who you respect, as much as I respect him, it's an enormous responsibility. In honoring that…

— Christopher Meledandri

I can think of no other writer who so thoroughly embodies the Jamesian spirit as Alison Lurie. Like him she can excavate…

— Edmund White

My feeling is that it's one of the very few things that comics can do that you really can't do in any…

— Daniel Clowes

I come from the world of theater, and I know Noel Coward's writing well. He has such a specific voice, and was…

— Marielle Heller

Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are…

— Stephen King

“Destroy your life; then put it back together.You'll get great material, meet some fascinating characters and – side benefit – the skills…

— Jerry Stahl

“To me, the single biggest mark of the amateur writer is a sense of hurry. Hurry to finish a manuscript, hurry to…

— Charles Finch

I write because I have an innate need to. I write because I can't do normal work. I write because I want…

— Orhan Pamuk

To me, writing is fun. It doesn't matter what you're writing, as long as you can tell a story.

— Stan Lee

When you've written long enough, you see that there's a common theme in your work.

— Elizabeth Berg

A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a "brief."

— Franz Kafka

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

— Haruki Murakami

“Words can't describe... shouldn't be in a writer's vocabulary.”

— Mary M. Forbes

Part of being a writer is defending your vision and not caving in to outside pressures.

— Jennifer Crusie

I love writing stand-up so much and tinkering and looking for ideas.

— Jim Gaffigan

Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.

— Isabel Allende

My dad is a successful television producer, director and writer and my mom's a director and writer.

— Troian Bellisario

Every language reflects the prejudices of the society in which it evolved.

— Casey Miller

“Writing is losing focus and winning it back, only to lose it once more.”

— Durga Chew-Bose

Paradoxically, the only thing that helps when I'm feeling despairing about writing is to write.

— Laura van den Berg

Every novel should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

— Peter De Vries

“Work from your own side of literature/ & room fetish, not "publishing's" - ”

— Jack Kerouac

The writer's function is to prevent myths turning into allegories.

— Michel Tournier

If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.

— Natalie Goldberg