The trade of authorship is a violent, and indestructible…

“J'ai un but, une tâche, disons le mot, une passion. Le métier d'écrire en est une violente et presque indestructible." ("I have an object,…

— George Sand

To expect an author to talk as he writes is ridiculous; or even if he did you would find fault with him as a…

— William Hazlitt

That author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he has published,…

— Charles Caleb Colton

All these teachers and [screenwriting] books mean you see movies that have been worked over by more committees wielding more rules, that all originality…

— Paul Schrader

Subtract from many modern poets all that may be found in Shakespeare, and trash will remain.

— Charles Caleb Colton

Our favorites are few; since only what rises from the heart reaches it, being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love…

— Amos Bronson Alcott

So there's a lot of people tied into believing that the traditional response to the authorship question. In terms of actors, some people get…

— Mark Rylance

Authorship has never been with me a matter of choice. I have not done it for amusement, or for money, or for fame, or…

— Harriet Martineau

Authorship, according to the spirit in which it is pursued, is an infancy, a pastime, a labor, a handicraft, an art, a science, or…

— August Wilhelm Von Schlegel

Ye who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities. [Lat., Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam Viribus.]

— Horace

“Every article and review and book that I have ever published has constituted an appeal to the person or persons to whom I should…

— Christopher Hitchens

“If there's a will, there's a way! I feel larger than LIFE--and look up to the stars who shine down on me and have…

— Donna Scrima-Black

The writer, like a priest, must be exempted from secular labor. His work needs a frolic health; he must be at the top of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself…

— Jean de la Bruyere

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul, and taste.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon