Writer Quotes

4019 Writer quotes by 2168 unique authors

I know that I'm a real writer because sometimes I write a story just because I want to; not because someone's told me to. — Fay Weldon
To imagine yourself inside another person...is what a story writer does in every piece of work; it is his first step, and his last too,… — Eudora Welty
There's still a strange moment with every book when I move from the position of writer to the position of reader and I suddenly see… — Eudora Welty
In a longish life as a professional writer, I have heard a thousand masterpieces talked out over bars, restaurant tables and love seats. I have… — Morris West
I have always felt that the first duty of a writer was to ascend - to make flights, carrying others along if you can manage… — Elwyn Brooks White
Semicolons . . . signal, rather than shout, a relationship. . . . A semicolon is a compliment from the writer to the reader. It… — George Will
Now the writer, I think, has the chance to live more than other people in the presence of ... reality. It is his business to… — Virginia Woolf
Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't… — William Zinsser
Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the… — William Zinsser
My commodity as a writer, whatever I'm writing about, is me. And your commodity is you. Don't alter your voice to fit the subject. Develop… — William Zinsser
A man can write one book that can be great, but this doesn't make him a great writer-just the writer of a great book. .… — Anthony Burgess
The first thing a writer has to do is find another source of income. Then, after you have begged, borrowed, stolen or saved up the… — Ellen Gilchrist
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try… — Ernest Hemingway
The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his… — Ernest Hemingway
The writer works on the inside and the critic works on the outside. I don't know what it looks like on the outside, sometimes. It's… — Barry Lopez
Amateurs... venture into scenes that a writer with more experience (and more professional concern) would bypass or eschew altogether. — Norman Mailer
The final lesson a writer learns is that everything can nourish the writer. The dictionary, a new word, a voyage, an encounter, a talk on… — Anais Nin
I know well enough that very few people who are supposedly interested in writing are interested in writing well. They are interested in publishing something,… — Flannery O'Connor
As a writer you ask yourself to dream while awake. — Aimee Bender
I'm not a great writer. I'm a great rewriter. — Paddy Chayefsky
I suspect that all the agony that goes into writing is borne precisely because the writer longs for acceptance-but it must be acceptance on his… — Ralph Ellison
To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again and once more, and… — John Hersey
A writer is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things. — William Stafford
A great writer created a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in… — Cyril Connolly
I blame myself for not often enough seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. Somewhere in his journals, Dostoyevky remarks that a writer can begin anywhere,… — Saul Bellow

Who Wrote These Writer Quotes

2,168 authors contributed a total of 4,019 Writer Quotes, led by these top contributors: