Break Quote by A. E. van Vogt

I often have to write a hundred pages or more before there's a paragraph that's alive.

— Philip Roth

One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph. I have spent many months on a first paragraph, and once I get it,…

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I know that sounds ineffective and daunting, but it [throw hundreds of pages away] is actually my favorite part of the writing process.

— Megan Chance

A lot of times, I write and have to scrap it. You don't know what I'm talking about because the words are too much,…

— Earl Sweatshirt

Oh, I do a tremendous amount of rewriting. I just obsessively rewrite. Although sometimes there are sections, sometimes you're just lucky and a paragraph…

— Elizabeth Strout

I huff and puff and struggle with every sentence, paragraph and page - sometimes every word as well.

— Aidan Chambers

“Don't for once ever think that what you're doing is easy. If it feels that way, you're probably doing something wrong. Throwing words onto…

— Allison M. Dickson

“We throw in as many fresh words as we can get away with. Simple, short sentences don't always work. You have to do tricks…

— Dr. Seuss

It's always the paragraphs I loved most, the ones I tenderly polished and re-read with pride, that my editor will suggest cutting.

— Liane Moriarty

I think the hardest part of writing anything is getting exposition out easily, without hitting people over the head with it.

— Jillian Bell

The secret of popular writing is never to put more on a given page than the common reader can lap off it with no…

— Ezra Pound

I’ve tried writing and the sentences come out fine, but I write a few pages and I don’t want to go on.

— Lawrence Block