Writing Quotes

18562 Writing quotes by 6643 unique authors

There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to… — Elwyn Brooks White
It is personalities not principles that move the age. — Oscar Wilde
I believe there are two ways of writing novels. One is mine, making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether;… — P.G. Wodehouse
Pay attention to the sound of words. — David Farland
Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue. — Jack Woodford
I count it a high honor to belong to a profession in which the good men write every paragraph, every sentence, every line, as lovingly… — Alexander Woollcott
For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own… — Gao Xingjian
Neither Christ nor Buddha nor Socrates wrote a book, for to do so is to exchange life for a logical process. — William Butler Yeats
It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude… — Frank Yerby
A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of… — Marguerite Yourcenar
One of my standard - and fairly true - responses to the question as to how story ideas come to me is that story ideas… — Roger Zelazny
The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment… — George R. R. Martin
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal… — George R. R. Martin
I get up every day and work in the morning. I have my coffee and get to work. On good days I look up and… — George R. R. Martin
I don't like the strictly objective viewpoint [in which all of the characters' actions are described in the third person, but we never hear what… — George R. R. Martin
In order to get inside their skin, I have to identify with them. That includes even the ones who are complete bastards, nasty, twisted, deeply… — George R. R. Martin
All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. Emotion is really what fiction is all about. That's not to say fiction… — George R. R. Martin
I'm a strong believer in telling stories through a limited but very tight third person point of view. I have used other techniques during my… — George R. R. Martin
From where I sit, battles are hard. I've written my share. Sometimes I employ the private's viewpoint, very up close and personal, dropping the reader… — George R. R. Martin
I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly… — Mark Twain
It is no use to keep private information which you can't show off. — Mark Twain
Experience of life (not of books) is the only capital usable in such a book as you have attempted; one can make no judicious use… — Mark Twain
Well, my book is written-let it go. But if it were only to write over again there wouldn't be so many things left out. They… — Mark Twain
Let us guess that whenever we read a sentence & like it, we unconsciously store it away in our model-chamber; & it goes, with the… — Mark Twain
I really think that reading is just as important as writing when you're trying to be a writer because it's the only apprenticeship we have,… — John Green

Who Wrote These Writing Quotes

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