Writing Quotes

18562 Writing quotes by 6643 unique authors

Beware of clichés. Not just the clichés that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichés of response as well as expression. There are… — Geoff Dyer
Finish the day's writing when you still want to continue. — Helen Dunmore
Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn't work, throw it away. It's a nice feeling, and you don't want to be cluttered with the… — Helen Dunmore
I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories. — Jacqueline Woodson
[Writing] is edit, edit, edit. It's almost like getting a boat ready to go to sea. You've still got a countless number of things left… — Jimmy Buffett
Interesting verbs are seldom very interesting. — Jonathan Franzen
Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination. — Louise Brooks
Sometimes I think creativity is magic; it's not a matter of finding an idea, but allowing the idea to find you. — Maya Lin
Punctuation is a fabulous tool for controlling your reader - you even get to control where they breathe. That's what I call power! — Unknown Author
Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
My characters talk to one another, and when it reaches a certain pitch of excitement I jump out of bed and run and trap them… — Ray Bradbury
The most influential books, and the truest in their influence, are works of fiction. They repeat, they re-arrange, they clarify the lessons of life; they… — Robert Louis Stevenson
I type in one place, but I write all over the house. — Toni Morrison
If you like to tell stories and compose sentences, and if you work hard at being good at these things, then you are a writer… — Trenton Lee Stewart
It takes a lot of bad writing to get to a little good writing. — Truman Capote
Don't try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors… — William Zinsser
Everyone needs an editor. — Timothy Foote
The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is. — August Wilson
Many writers profess great exactness in punctuation who never yet made a point. — George D. Prentice
Editing might be a bloody trade. But knives aren't the exclusive property of butchers. Surgeons use them too. — Blake Morrison
Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason. — Richard Chenevix Trench
You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences. — Anatole France
Talent is long patience. — Gustave Flaubert
You feel the call. That's the important thing. Now answer it as fully as you can. Take the risk to let all that is in… — Elizabeth Berg
Writing a novel proved to be the hardest, most self-analyzing task I had ever attempted, far worse than an autobiography: and its rewards were greater… — Dick Francis

Who Wrote These Writing Quotes

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