Writer Quotes · Page 355

Writing is like giving birth to a piano sideways. Anyone who perseveres is either talented or nuts.

— Flannery O'Connor

“Write down three things you like about your adversaries.”

— Bryan Cohen

Yes. I am writing full-time. Which is strange. It feels like not having a job.

— Sloane Crosley

Listening to Eric Taylor is better than reading a Larry McMurtry novel and easier on the eyes.

— Ralston Bowles

I've lost my writing skills since college. I couldn't write a book. It would take a long time.

— Stephen Malkmus

They say, 'Write what you know.' What I know isn't cheerleader; it has a little bit of teeth to it.

— Melissa Marr

I have notebooks all over the place. I write little stories for my cabaret.

— Anne Reid

“Don't write about ideas ... write about convictions of the heart.”

— Leonard Cohen

More than anything I am a novelist. But for me, an author's job is not only to create linguistically accomplished works. As…

— Orhan Pamuk

You have to surrender to a book. If you do, when something in it seems to be going askew, you are wounded.…

— Robert Gottlieb

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of…

— Pat Conroy

From the earliest age, I was just different. I think that's part of every writer's little revenge. You think, 'I'm not a…

— Janine di Giovanni

Every writer knows that when you're imitating somebody - you know, you're sounding like Faulkner - you're doing pretty good, but your…

— George Saunders

“She writes only in pencil, as if the words might need to be revoked--borrowed words, for the most part, plucked out of…

— Dawn Tripp

As the number of studies increased, it became clear that writing was a far more powerful tool for healing than anyone had…

— James W. Pennebaker

I'm not saying that I don't experience people in life as evil, but writing is not a place of alienation; writing is…

— Etgar Keret

“[...] he made it a rule never to touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least 30…

— Haruki Murakami

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out…

— Roald Dahl

I always feel like my book is a success when I see a child reading it, and they have their pointer finger…

— Jan Brett

Kids are always writing me: 'I had a bad day too.' 'I got gum in my hair.' And the kids also write…

— Judith Viorst

“The bookshop felt damp and chilly, but it was still and unsupervised bookshop, and Anna felt a frisson of excitement as she…

— Lucy Dillon

Think about reading: Today, parents would love it if their kids read books more because the parents understand the books. Just over…

— Paul Saffo

I do feel like I'm in this lucky position where I can write something and people will read it, and I feel…

— David Liss

I believe every editor should stand to edit. That's just my particular soapbox. Some things are so delicate and depend on such…

— Walter Murch

I came to accept in myself a long time ago that I really do like writing articulate sociopaths.

— Matt Nix

It often happens that people come to believe in their own fictions.

— Robert Rhodes James

“The written word isn't necessarily a chore but can be a window into new worlds”

— Wes Moore - Bestselling author of The Other Wes Moore

I write to try to understand, and because I have nothing better to do.

— Jose Saramago

Fiction gives us the second chances that life denies us.

— Paul Theroux

Half the reason I turned into a writer is you didn't have to show up anywhere. You could work naked.

— Jerry Stahl

“also make ongoing written notes about my life. As it turned out, this was”

— Cliff Harwin

Just handle the books gently and you’ll get along fine.

— Patrick Rothfuss

“There is only one person who needs to be convinced that you're a writer. That would be you.”

— Tim Campbell

I'm not an angry person. When I write, the lawyer in me tries to make it as easy to read as possible.

— Joe Scarborough

They say you hit your stride as a writer at about 50. I'm hoping to do that.

— Andrew Sean Greer

Finding new books to read and relaxing is what I enjoy when I do have some time to spend on my own.

— Chris Young

There is no such thing as great writing - there is only great re-writing!

— Ernest Hemingway

It's always better to have too much to read than not enough.

— Ann Patchett

A good writer sells out everybody he knows, sooner or later.

— Alice McDermott

Publishing had been successful where there had been natural geographic monopolies.

— Joe Mansueto