Good writers are of necessity rare.

Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell…

— Anonymous

Good writers have two things in common: they prefer to be understood rather than admired; and they do not write for knowing and over-acute…

— Friedrich Nietzsche

The good stories, of course, write themselves. And somebody wants to know who are the really good writers, and how many of them there…

— R. A. Lafferty

Usually people who do bad things make good writers.I did a lot of bad things, which is why my novels are interesting.

— Jakucho Setouchi

I always think that good writers should be growing up on the brink of death - it really lets them see mortality very clearly.

— Gary Shteyngart

Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.

— Ezra Pound

Well, you know when people are no good at anything else they become writers.

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Most good writers are good psychologists.”

— Rachel Ballon

You don't have to be a good person to be a good writer--history shows it's better if you're not--but you have to understand your…

— Peter Abrahams

No theoretician, no writer on art, however interesting he or she might be, could be as interesting as Picasso. A good writer on art…

— David Hockney

Good writers hate bad writing but hating bad writing doesn’t make you good. Writing badly does.

— Dan Harmon

My grandfather had been a newspaper reporter, as was my uncle. They were pretty good writers and so I thought maybe somewhere down the…

— Gene Hackman

What makes a good writer of history is a guy who is suspicious. Suspicion marks the real difference between the man who wants to…

— Jim Bishop

So many interviews, even ones that I consider really intelligent and good writers, will do the, like, 'Oh, you're not taking your clothes off…

— Lorde

I'm not famous for my back story investigations; I'm lucky that I work with good writers and it's usually in the script.

— Bill Nighy