Writing Quotes Compiled by Sara Hardin

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things

above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King

“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I

know of no shortcuts.” —Larry L. King

“If you have a minimum of talent, but you sit at that typewriter long enough,

something will emerge. All I had was this burning desire to

be a writer and all those emotions.”

–Robert Cormier

“Most of the basic material a writer works with is

acquired before the age of fifteen.” –Willa Cather

“Good writing is supposed to evoke

sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is

raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

– E.L. Doctorow

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

– Richard Bach

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the

door open.” –Stephen King

“The first draft of anything is ****.”

– Ernest Hemingway

“You spend a lot of time picking out your outfit before a first date or an interview- the right shoes,

right dress, right shirt. But if your tie is crooked or there’s lettuce in your teeth, people

notice. The little details make the whole package. Grammar

matters.” –Anonymous

“The best writers assemble ideas like a tower of blocks, one thought resting on the one before, all supporting

each other to create an imposing final product.”

– Penny Kittle

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

—Stephen King

(On why strong verb choice is important)

“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”

—Jack Kerouac

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever

becomes a master.” —Ernest Hemingway

“The difference between the right word and the

almost right word is the difference between the

lightning and the lightning bug!” –Mark Twain

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent

about things that matter.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are rotten, either write things worth reading or

do things worth the writing.”

– Benjamin Franklin

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the

only way you can do anything really good.”

- William Faulkner

“All we have to do is write one true sentence.”

–Ernest Hemingway

“Books aren’t written. They are rewritten.” –Michael Crichton

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect.

If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”

–Tom Stoppard

“Storytelling is joke telling. It’s knowing your

punchline.” – Andrew Stanton (director of Toy

Story, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E)

“The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.”

–Sylvia Plath

“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write

what you mean.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“In order to write about life, first you must live it!”

– Ernest Hemingway

“Whether or not you write well, write bravely.”

– Bill Stout

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

–Albert Einstein

“Nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

– Henry David Thoreau

“Nothing great was ever achieved without

enthusiasm.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You can fix anything but a blank page.”

– Nora Roberts

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you

must write it.” –Maya Angelou

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

–Anton Chekov

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but

you can make the whole trip that way.”

– E.L. Doctorow

"I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I

can, because that is the best way to get there.”

– H.G. Wells

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.

No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

–Robert Frost

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough

to start, you will.” –Stephen King

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go

after it with a club.” – Jack London

“Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can.

That is the only secret.” –Matthew Arnold

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every

day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of

them. Most people don't see any.” - Orson Scott Card

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage– as long as you edit

brilliantly.” - C. J. Cherryh

“Virtually every page is a cliffhanger. You have to force them to turn it.”

–Dr. Seuss