Writer Quotes · Page 618

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

— Mark Twain

Authors who moan with praise for their editors always seem to reek slightly of the Stockholm syndrome.

— Christopher Hitchens

“Great writers speak with their works not with their mouths!”

— Mehmet Murat ildan

I thought of myself as a writer for years before I got around to writing anything.

— E. L. Doctorow

“Literature is not an instruction manual. For obvious reasons, this is rarely noted in fiction.”

— Charles Baxter

Tour isn't good for writing, but it's good for inspiration.

— Mitski

Nonfiction, to me, feels like an argument, whereas a novel is like a series of questions.

— Sheila Heti

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.

— Franz Kafka

I'd never written a book or a story that required meeting people, and that's not necessarily my best skill, even in English.…

— Tania James

Writing was always something I had. I need this to survive when I'm empty, and losing my mind. My pain is in…

— Jeremy Limn

I wrote stories from the time I was a little girl, but I didn't want to be a writer. I wanted to…

— Joan Didion

I'm an emotional sort of person in general and I have a vivid imagination, so I feel the whole spectrum of emotion…

— Erin Morgenstern

“Two of life’s greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading—most gloriously, both at once.”

— Michael Finkel

“Write down important formulas, facts, definitions, and/or keywords in the margin first so you won't worry about”

— Jawanza Kunjufu

I do really enjoy Jay McInerney's wine writing. He's a good writer. He brings his fiction-writing skillset. He's not afraid to put…

— Mike D

Books seek us out. They slip themselves into our hands just at the time we are ready for a new self-concept.

— Hugh Prather

“Editing can feel incredibly burdensome for self-published authors when you are tasked to reread your work, for what feels like, a thousand…

— Robin S. Baker

I'm a fiction writer, and I do write essays, but I am not a poet. And I absolutely reject the phrase 'woman…

— Cynthia Ozick

“Something good happened to my writing when stopped being afraid to do something simple, for the fear that people might think I…

— Carrie Newcomer

The odd thing about being a writer is you do tend to lose yourself in your books. Sometimes it seems like real…

— George R. R. Martin

I don't take notes. I don't have any notebooks. I keep on trying to do that because it seems like a very…

— Zadie Smith

“Books are important, and so serious intellectual attention to them is important. While promplty published scholarly articles are also important, the book…

— Jeffrey C. Issac Editor-in-Chief Perspectives on Politics 12 2013

“A good book, he had concluded, leaves you wanting to reread the book. A great book compels you to reread your own…

— Richard Flanagan

“there is an osmosis from fiction to reality, a constant contamination which distorts the truth behind both and fuzzes the telling distinctions…

— Iain M. Banks

The writing's easy, it's the living that is sometimes difficult.

— Charles Bukowski

Readers enjoy talking about books almost as much as they like reading.

— Donalyn Miller

“Reading is dreaming another person’s dream … or nightmare!”

— Johan Thompson

Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading.

— Paul Theroux

“Writers create impressions that inspire, stir emotions, evoke questions and sprinkle seeds of awe.”

— C. Toni Graham

It's very hard to turn writers against each other, believe it or not.

— Matthew Weiner

I can't write if someone else is in the house, not even the cleaning woman.

— Patricia Highsmith

Writing the 'Crossfire' series is deeply personal for me, and I love the whole process of it.

— Sylvia Day

I'm trying to finish my book on the Kennedy assassination.

— Vincent Bugliosi

Now I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am.

— Mickey Spillane

You have to have some kind of clarity or understanding of what's happening to write.

— Benjamin Booker

It would be easier to write a novel without reader input, but I feel the fiction is richer for it.

— Piers Anthony

You're never alone with a book, are you? It's a dialogue.

— Jeanette Winterson

Don't close the book of life because of stains of the past, just turn the page and start a new life.

— Anonymous

Everywhere I go, I find that writers are treated as if they are invisible, as if they don't matter.

— Harlan Ellison

I may not have become a good writer, but I managed to make a living out of writing.

— Ruskin Bond