That's the hard work of writing. The imagining.

That's what writing is: it's imagining that you can make a world. That's what basketball is, too: it's imagining the game as a world.

— John Edgar Wideman

“But then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all. Imagining isn't perfect. You can't get all the way inside someone else.…

— John Green

“The beauty of writing is imagining new endings to a time of darkness, like burning off a morning fog with the heat and clarity…

— J.J. Brown

Back to work. If I’m [writing] I’m not thinking about the crazy.

— Faith Hunter

There's less skill and more plain hard work to writing than anyone except a writer thinks.

— Mabel Seeley

I usually don't have to do a lot of research in my work, as I'm writing about something I'm already familiar with.

— Amy Bloom

The more interesting the 9-to-5 work is, the more it takes away from my real work, which is writing.

— Judith Rossner

Co-creation is much more work than writing somewhere in a hidden corner and then publishing your content. However, the benefits outweigh the costs.

— Alexander Osterwalder

We have to diversify, we have to find work we can do that helps other people while helping ourselves, work that has to do…

— Alice Mattison

As a teacher at Princeton, I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't…

— Joyce Carol Oates

It is so much hard work writing your first novel. You're not even sure that it is possible to do.

— Asa Larsson

It's hard for me to show work while I'm writing, because other people's comments will influence what happens.

— Donna Tartt

Like everyone else, there are days when I don't want to go to work. However, writing is a job like anything else.

— Francine Rivers

“However, just like any line of work, writing is a negotiation, and creative control is as elusive as financial stability. I discovered that writing…

— Alice Driver

My work is writing, but my real work is being.

— William Saroyan