Writing Quotes · Page 240

I wouldn't be writing songs if I didn't have something to say.

— Cat Stevens

If you wait for inspiration, you're not a writer, but a waiter.

— Louis L'Amour

I did write a couple of original screenplays, but I'd rather write plays

— Beth Henley

That is why I write - to try to turn sadness into longing, solitude into remembrance.

— Paulo Coelho

What interests me is what you might call vernacular writing, writing that connects you to a place.

— Calvin Trillin

'Sound of My Voice' had been written before 'Another Earth.'

— Zal Batmanglij

Teaching writing puts you on the point of a pin in terms of what you want your own writing to be.

— Jane Alison

I think writers like old cities and are made very nervous by new cities.

— Donald Barthelme

“Whisper to the flashing water your real name, write your signature in the sand, and shout your identity to the sky until…

— Christopher John Farley

“We must remember that what a writer does to people is not necessarily what he intends to do. It may be only…

— T.S. Eliot

There's a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to.

— Susan Orlean

Because I find writing painful, I try to get it over with as fast as possible. But I write every day, or…

— Patrick Modiano

Of course, I have to consider that I've written a lot of prose, but I do in my heart think of myself…

— Vikram Seth

I've been very lucky. There were times when I was afraid I would never sell another book, but I never doubted I'd…

— George R. R. Martin

I always wrote stories, but I do remember a particular moment in middle school where I became passionate about essay writing.

— Rupi Kaur

I want to prove that if you write in strict meter and rhyme about subjects people care about, they will buy poetry.

— Felix Dennis

Where would David Copperfield be if Dickens had gone to writing classes? Probably about seventy minor characters short, is where. (Did you…

— Nick Hornby

Honestly, the essence of publishing hasn't changed. Since the days of the cave man carving stuff on the cave walls, people have…

— Susan Wiggs

“[Speculating thoughts after an interview with A. A. Milne] The main point was that Mr. Milne took his writing very seriously, "even…

— Christopher Milne

Some writers whom I respect very much, like China Miéville and some others of the New Weird, consider the true role of…

— Vera Nazarian

“For a writer, I'm not sure that feeling of knowing you've just written something good and strong can be trumped. Not because…

— Cara Rosalie Olsen

“Writing for the sake of writing, writing that draws its credibility from its very existence, is a foreign idea to most Americans.…

— Julia Cameron

Don't be a writer; it's a terrible way to live your life. There's nothing to be gained from it but poverty and…

— Paul Auster

God thought and things came to be, in-formed: the divine thought is the complicated womb of all that is. For it's not…

— Gregory of Nazianzus

I can sit and dissect for hours, and then write 50 songs about. I always find that inspiring.

— Rachael Yamagata

I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It's greed, plain and simple.

— Anne Tyler

I suppose it never occurs to these people that a man might just want to write a piece of music.

— Ralph Vaughan Williams

The truth is, writing is this: hard and boring and occasionally great but usually not.

— Amy Poehler

“Words are better than weapons, wisdom is better than war.”

— Amit Kalantri

I'm always fascinated by why a person becomes a writer.

— Adriana Trigiani

You can write a story with a pencil, but ultimately, you write your life with a pen.

— Anonymous

You can only write, 'Somebody wants something, something else is in their way of getting it.'

— Aaron Sorkin

“To write a good book, you must read one book for each page of the book you are about to write.”

— M.F. Moonzajer

The way to write is well, and how is your own business.

— A. J. Liebling

For me writing is foremost a mode of thinking and when it works well, an act of discovery

— Joseph Epstein

“Sometimes it is the reader that sucks, not the book.”

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.

— Zadie Smith

New writers seem to pop up from everywhere. And quite a few of them are really good and original.

— Toni Jerrman

A writer uses a pen instead of a scalpel or blow torch,

— Michael Ondaatje

I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.

— Alice Mattison