50+ Inspiring Quotes About Writing and Writers
The best way to become a better writer is to write and then to publish your writing, whether you publish it on a blog, in a book, or with a close friend. It’s only by practicing writing, and getting feedback on it, that you can improve.
That being said, it never hurts to learn from those who have gone before you, and over the years, we’ve compiled a lot of excellent advice from the best writers on how to become a better writer.
My Top 5 Writing Quotes:
- “Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of job: It’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.” —Neil Gaiman
- “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” —Somerset Maugham
- “Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” —Gloria Steinem
- “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” —Anais Nin
- “Get through a draft as quickly as possible.” —Joshua Wolf Shenk
Favorite Quotes from Writers in Our Community
I asked authors in our community for their favorite quotes on writing or being a writer, and here’s what they sent me.
1. How You Write a Book, According to Neil Gaiman
From Carole Wolfe, author of My Best Mistake, and M MacKinnon, author of The Comyn’s Curse:
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This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard.” —Neil Gaiman
2. Why We Write, According to Walt Whitman
From Melanie Lambert, author of Wonder Woman in Disguise:
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering… these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love… these are what we stay alive for.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
3. What You Must Write, According to Toni Morrison
From Michelle Dalton, author of Epona, and Joslyn Chase, author of Steadman’s Blind:
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“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” —Toni Morrison
4. How to Write the Right Word, According to Mark Twain
From Ichabod Ebenezer, author of A Shadow Stained in Blood:
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“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” -Mark Twain.
5. What Writing Is, According to Isaac Asimov
From Jeff Elkins, author of Grab:
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“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” Issac Asimov
6. On the Path to Writing Success, According to Octavia E. Butler
From S.J. Henderson, author of Daniel the Drawer:
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” —Octavia E. Butler
7. Why We Doubt Our Own Writing, According to Ira Glass
From Ross Boone, author of The Absent Landlord:
“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. . . . For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. . . . But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.” —Ira Glass
8. Why Writing Requires Empathy, According to John Barth (and Sarah Gribble)
From Sarah Gribble, author of The Hike:
“Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.” John Barth
In other words:
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“Villains are the heroes of their own stories.” —Sarah Gribble
More Favorite Writing Quotes
Need more writing quotes? Read on for more of our favorites:
9. Why You Became a Writer, According to Gloria Steinem
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“Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” —Gloria Steinem
10. Why You Became a Writer, According to George Orwell
“[You write out of the] desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, etc., etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive and a strong one.” —George Orwell
11. Why You Became a Writer, According to Anaïs Nin
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“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” —Anais Nin
12. That Doesn’t Mean Writing Is Easy
“Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of job: It’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.” —Neil Gaiman
13. Start Writing Now
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“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” —Louis L’Amour
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14. And Write Quickly
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“Get through a draft as quickly as possible.” —Joshua Wolf Shenk
15. What To Write About
“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” —Natalie Goldberg
16. Be Willing to Write Badly
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“[Be] willing to write really badly.” Jennifer Egan
17. Don’t Doubt Yourself
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“The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt.” —Sylvia Plath
18. All Great Writers Are a Little Crazy
“The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.” —William Styron
19. The Only Way to Fail As a Writer…
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“You fail only if you stop writing.” —Ray Bradbury
20. Just Write One True Sentence
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“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Writer the truest sentence that you know.” —Ernest Hemingway
21. Just Write Something Simple
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“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” —Jack Kerouac
22. Your Big Ideas are Worthless
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“Ideas are cheap.… It’s the execution that is all important.” —George R.R. Martin
23. Really Worthless
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“It doesn’t matter how many book ideas you have if you can’t finish writing your book.” Joe Bunting
(I don’t consider myself the equal of George R.R. Martin, Ernest Hemingway, or Sylvia Plath… yet… but this quote seemed important to include.)
24. Don’t Let Anything Interfere With Your Writing
“Find your best time of the day for writing and write. Don’t let anything else interfere. Afterwards it won’t matter to you that the kitchen is a mess.” —Esther Freud
25. Keep At It
“I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.” —Chinua Achebe
26. Write Even When the World is Chaotic
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“Write even when the world is chaotic.” —Cory Doctorow
27. The Mark of a Master Writer
“The mark of a master is to select only a few moments but to give us a lifetime.” —Robert McKee
28. No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
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“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” —Robert Frost
29. Stay Drunk on Writing
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“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” —Ray Bradbury
30. Writing is like kissing
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“I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss—you can’t do it alone.” —John Cheever
31. Don’t Make a Chore for Your Readers
“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.” —Dr. Seuss
32. Show, Don’t Tell
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“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” —Anton Chekhov
33. How to Develop Your Own Style
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“It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.” —PD James
34. Writing is More Difficult for Us
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“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
35. No One Knows the Rules
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“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” —Somerset Maugham
36. The best way to become a writer
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“The best way to be a writer is to be a writer.” Augusten Burroghs
37. Always Listen to Ben Franklin
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“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin
38. Your Words Have Power
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A word after a word after a word is power. —Margaret Atwood
39. Chase Your Dream
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If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality. —Dr. Roopleen
40. Writing in the Dark
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Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. —E. L. Doctorow
41. Turn the Monsters Loose
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I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. —Stephen King
42. Stories Are All Around You
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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
43. Write Now
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A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper. —E. B. White
44. The Secret Professional Writers Know
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A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. —Richard Bach
45. Follow Your Hero
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First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him! —Ray Bradbury
46. Exercise Your Writing Muscle
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Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got. —Philip José Farmer
47. But Actually, Exercise Your Writing Muscle
“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” —Jane Yolen
48. Your Writing Is Your Strength
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I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of. —Joss Whedon
49. The Real Challenge: Avoiding Distraction
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Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet. —Anonymous
50. Just Tell a Story
“I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.” —Edgar Rice Burroughs
51. Perseverance Is Key
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Ours is a trade of perseverance, not perfection. —David Safford
52. Your Villains Think They’ve Got it Right
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Nobody is a villain in their own story. —George R. R. Martin
53. Write First, Edit Later
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Sentence first—verdict afterwards. —Lewis Carroll
54. Your Hero’s Job
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The villain starts the story; the hero ends it. —Philip Athans
55. Plan, Then Adjust
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Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. —Dwight D. Eisenhower
56. Read, Read, Then Read Some More
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Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different style. —R. L. Stine
57. How to Keep Your Readers Hooked
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Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once. —Stephen King
Need more grammar help? My favorite tool that helps find grammar problems and even generates reports to help improve my writing is ProWritingAid. Works with Word, Scrivener, Google Docs, and web browsers. Also, be sure to use my coupon code to get 25 percent off: WritePractice25
Coupon Code:WritePractice25 »
Which quote is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
PRACTICE
Write something worth reading! Spend fifteen minutes free writing or working on a work in progress. As you write, channel the advice from the great writers above.
When your time is up, post your practice in the comments section.
Happy writing!