Writing Wisdom

When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them --  then the rest will be valuable.     Mark Twain

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.  Jules Renard

You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.    Saul Bellow

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.     
Jack Kerouac

If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.   Douglas Adams

Easy reading is damn hard writing.   Nathaniel Hawthorne

Write what should not be forgotten.   Isabel Allende

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.   Maya Angelou

More writing wisdom!

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it. Mark Twain

We write by the light of every story we have ever read. Richard Peck

A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories John Irving

I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity. Edgar Allan Poe

My books are water; those of great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water.  Mark Twain

More writing wisdom!

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up whenever you felt like it.         J.D. Salinger

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.                    Ray Bradbury

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Mark Twain

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you. Zora Neale Hurston

Write without pay until someone offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for. Mark Twain

More Writing Wisdom!

All except the shallowest living involves tearing up one rough draft after another. Msgr. John Sullivan


I have likened writing a novel to going on a journey with some notion of the destination I will arrive at, but not the whole picture -- which emerges gradually as a series of revelations, as the journey goes along.     Rose Tremain

What a writer must enjoy, or at least tolerate, is the utterly solitary nature of the work. Lawrence Block

Writers should be read but neither seen nor heard. 
 Daphne DuMaurier

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.    Ernest Hemingway

More Writing Wisdom!

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.  Meister Eckhart 

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.  Somerset Maugham

Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter. Neil Gaiman

The ear is the only true writer.  Robert Frost

I didn't have time to write you a short letter so I wrote you a long one. Mark Twain

The road to hell is paved with adverbs. Stephen King 

All except the shallowest living involves tearing up one rough draft after another.  Msgr. John Sullivan

Writing Wisdom

More quotes from my collection!

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.  Thomas Mann

The best thing that can happen in life is when you start work at eight o'clock and somebody says it's time for coffee break and you don't want to go.  Stephen King

The writer's magic word is BIC -- butt in chair.  Jane Yolen

A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.  John Irving

Learn to love revision.  Wally Lamb

Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.  Mark Twain

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
 Muriel Rukeyser

Yep! More Writing Wisdom! (I ♥ this stuff!)

I ♥ writing! I ♥ quotations! So I ♥♥♥ quotations about writing!






In my view, a writer is a writer because even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.      Junot Diaz

It's never too late -- in fiction or in life -- to revise.     Nancy Thayer

The sinister thing about writing is that it starts off seeming so easy and ends up being so hard.     L. Rust Hills

When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.    Raymond Chandler

We write by the light of every story we have ever read.     Richard Peck

Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.                     Mark Twain

Draw your chair up to the edge of the precipice, and I'll tell you a story.           F. Scott Fitzgerald

More Writing Wisdom

I've written before about how I love to read what other writers have to say about writing, and I've shared their wisdom before. Here are some more quotes from my collection:




If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.  Elmore Leonard

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us get up and go to work.  Stephen King

I respect a man who knows how to spell a word more than one way.  Mark Twain

The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.  Voltaire

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.  Jack London

Writing Wisdom

I love to read what other writers have to say about writing. Their words can be inspiring, amusing, and even educational. Here are some more quotes from my collection:

"Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. [And] sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled."  Dean Koontz

"You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better."  Maxim Gorky

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." Douglas Adams

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."  Richard Bach

"I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries."    Stephen King

Writing is a pain!

You know you've felt the same way sometimes. And so have many other fine and discriminating minds! I love collecting quotes -- especially ones about writing. Below are some of my favorites about the pain of writing. Do you have any to share?

How to start a novel: First thing, defrost the refrigerator. (Ernest Hemingway)

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. (Gene Fowler)

Good stories are not written. They are rewritten. (Phyllis Whitney)

I only write when I'm inspired, and I make sure I'm inspired every morning at 9 a.m.
(Peter DeVries)

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. (Pablo Picasso -- Hey, it applies to writing, too.)

Dear Editor
Why do you keep sending my stories back? You're supposed to print them and make me rich and famous. What is it with you?  (Snoopy)