Writing Quotes

18562 Writing quotes by 6643 unique authors

All of a writer that matters is in the book or books. It is idiotic to be curious about the person. — Jean Rhys
Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of… — Anne Rice
Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it's about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it… — Mordecai Richler
No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. — Miguel de Cervantes
Engrave this in your brain: EVERY WRITER GETS REJECTED. You will be no different. — John Scalzi
Don't mistake a good setup for a satisfying conclusion - many beginning writers end their stories when the real story is just ready to begin. — Stanley Schmidt
The road to ignorance is paved with good editors. — George Bernard Shaw
Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about critics. — Isaac Bashevis Singer
We live under continual threat of two equally fearful, but seemingly opposed destinies: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror. It is fantasy, served out in large… — Susan Sontag
By writing much, one learns to write well. — Robert Southey
...the vital point to remember is that the swine who just sent your pearl of a story back with nothing but a coffee-stain and a… — Brian Stableford
If creative work protects a man against mental illness, it is small wonder that he pursues it with avidity; and even if the state of… — Anthony Storr
Every writer must acknowledge and be able to handle the unalterable fact that he has, in effect, given himself a life sentence in solitary confinement.… — Peter Straub
A science fiction story is a story with a human problem, and a human solution, that would not have happened at all without its scientific… — Theodore Sturgeon
In a novel, the author gives the leading character intelligence and distinction. Fate goes to less trouble: mediocrities play a part in great events simply… — Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them: that you simply want… — Andrei Tarkovsky
One writes such a story [The Lord of the Rings] not out of the leaves of trees still to be observed, nor by means of… — J.R.R. Tolkien
Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything. — Ivana Trump
An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one's own prose. — Barbara Tuchman
I never started from ideas but always from character. — Ivan Turgenev
The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble… — Mark Twain
My work...is to shatter the faith of men here, there, and everywhere, faith in affirmation, faith in negation, and faith in abstention from faith, and… — Miguel de Unamuno
The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. — Mary Heaton Vorse
The image that fiction presents is purged of the distractions, confusions and accidents of ordinary life. — Robert Penn Warren
There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it. — Lawrence Watt-Evans

Who Wrote These Writing Quotes

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