Writing Quotes · Page 322

It would positively be a relief to me to dig Shakespeare up and throw stones at him.

— George Bernard Shaw

The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know.

— Toni Morrison

I started writing music as a composer in school, in the classical tradition.

— Julia Holter

Science fiction writers missed the most salient feature of our modern era: the Internet.

— Jack McDevitt

When I do have free time, I spend it with friends, or I spend it at home writing or making something.

— Billie Eilish

Everything I write means a lot to me because it is my head on paper.

— Mitch Lucker

I wish I could write while I'm on the road but it never works for me. I need to be sitting still.

— Jami Attenberg

I know some writers that have a million novel ideas, but I don't.

— Laura van den Berg

I don't think I have any right to say I belong to that [Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan tradition]. I think that's something that…

— Justin Townes Earle

When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on…

— Pat Barker

One thing you learn from comedy writing, or sketch writing, is just to be vicious about cutting. Do not get sentimental about…

— Brendan Hunt

“Like a tree or a river, a story can have many branches or tributaries—but its power comes from the root, the origin…

— Lawrence Nault

Touring has been a new part of my life in a lot of ways. We've just been touring massively since the record…

— ZZ Ward

“There are things known—things experienced, felt, and understood—that words hold no power to convey. Attempting to do so only dilutes their substance…

— Richelle E. Goodrich

There are very few things I would love to do other than a life of writing, and I think being a singer-songwriter…

— Lily King

“If you haven't cried at least once while writing a chapter of your inspirational book, then you have to ask yourself if…

— Shannon L. Alder

I think it's still difficult to write about motherhood and anxiety, that talking about not wanting to be a mother or feeling…

— Laurie Foos

“There on the landing sits the typewriter. It is clogged with dust, the ribbon dried and flimsy. Looking at it gives Felix…

— Maggie O'Farrell

It is only with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement that you begin to see different examinations of not only Reconstruction…

— Gerald Horne

Sometimes you'll read something and think, "What is going on here? There must be more to this." The constraints of the news…

— Joshuah Bearman

I think there are people who do write regionally, because that's their subject matter - the way the sunset looks over a…

— Matthea Harvey

But how to do feelings? All very well to write "She felt sad", or describe what a sad person might do, but…

— Ian Mcewan

Who is my role model and how long can I keep this going? I just move around and do different things and…

— Madonna Ciccone

“Some writers say they find the writing process lonely. I don't. Yes, it's solitary but when you can escape into a world…

— Stewart Stafford

Anybody who makes speeches written by someone else is just a robot.

— Joe Strummer

Becoming the reader is the essence of becoming a writer.

— John O'Hara

Accursed who brings to light of day the writings I have cast away.

— William Butler Yeats

I'm writing for entertainment. I like people to reach the end and feel they got their money's worth.

— Clive Cussler

He never learned to read and a write so well but he could play his guitar like ringing a bell yell.

— Peter Tosh

Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.

— Stephen King

Life is nearly over with me. I have taken no pains about my style of writing.

— Charles Darwin

“Writing is a gift. To be good at your gift you need to keep writing.”

— Lisa Powell

Fairy tales and folk tales have always played a role in my writing in one way or another.

— Linn Ullmann

I always thought that writing poetry was in itself a political act.

— John Ashbery

Virgil and Horace [were] the severest writers of the severest age.

— John Dryden

I started writing seriously when I was a teenager, around 14 years old.

— Marie Lu

Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

I couldn't ever write a straight crime novel: there'd be an intrusion of weirdness at some point.

— Alastair Reynolds

To read and write will help you understand life. . .to sew and mend will help you survive it.

— Gail Tsukiyama

“I believe in magic. As a writer, I create them on blank paper.”

— Sonnia Kemmer