Writing Quotes

18562 Writing quotes by 6643 unique authors

I went to the trash pile at Tuskegee Institute and started my laboratory with bottles, old fruit jars and any other thing I found I… — George Washington Carver
Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography. — Evelyn Waugh
In writing biography, fact and fiction shouldn't be mixed. And if they are, the fictional points should be printed in red ink, the facts printed… — Catherine Drinker Bowen
I discovered in writing the biography of Bill Clinton that it is actually easier to write a biography of someone who is dead. Although you… — David Maraniss
A life that is worth writing at all is worth writing minutely. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks,… — Richard P. Feynman
The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress. — Philip Roth
The road to hell is paved with adverbs. — Stephen King
Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything. ... It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin… — Enid Bagnold
It ain't whatcha write, it's the way atcha write it. — Jack Kerouac
Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life. — Hunter S. Thompson
Making people believe the unbelievable is no trick; it's work. ... Belief and reader absorption come in the details: An overturned tricycle in the gutter… — Stephen King
To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive. — William Zinsser
If I had not existed, someone else would have written me, Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, all of us. — William Faulkner
We're past the age of heroes and hero kings. ... Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it's up to the writer… — John Updike
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what… — Elmore Leonard
There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be. — Doris Lessing
Style means the right word. The rest matters little. — Jules Renard
Style is to forget all styles. — Jules Renard
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story. — Tom Clancy
The writing of a novel is taking life as it already exists, not to report it but to make an object, toward the end that… — Eudora Welty
One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I'm going to do my five or 10 pages… — Lawrence Block
When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt;… — Stephen King
Genius gives birth, talent delivers. What Rembrandt or Van Gogh saw in the night can never be seen again. Born writers of the future are… — Jack Kerouac
Beware of advice-even this. — Carl Sandburg

Who Wrote These Writing Quotes

6,643 authors contributed a total of 18,562 Writing Quotes, led by these top contributors: