25 Quotes From Famous Writers
Writers love to talk shop. They love to talk about writing.
That’s lucky for us, and other aspiring writers, who look to these famous writers and their famous quotes for guidance and inspiration. Reading what my favourite writers have to say about the craft of writing itself is one of my favourite ways to persevere when I feel blocked as a writer. I hope these quotes give you the same inspiration as they give me.
Read on for 25 quotes about writing from some of your favourite writers.
“Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild, typewritten pages, for your own joy.”
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
“The work is always accomplished one word at a time.”
From Stephen King’s On Writing
“Writing is an act of faith: I believe it’s also an act of hope, the hope that things can get better than they are.”
“If we are invested in a writing life - as opposed to a writing career - then we are in it for the process and not the product.”
“I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write.”
“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”
“In my life, writing has been an important exercise to clarify what I believe, what I see, what I care about, what my deepest values are.”
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
“Nothing can save you except writing. It keeps the walls from failing.”
A quote on writing from a famous Stoic
“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”
“Writing in the first person, you immediately open yourself up to the idea that there’s a connection between you and the narrator. When I’m writing something, everything falls into place.”
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
“If you wish to be a writer, write.”
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”
“The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.”
A quote from Anne Lamott about the craft of writing
“You fail only if you stop writing.”
“You can’t edit a blank page.”
“Writing is simply something you must do. It’s rather like virtue in that it is its own reward.”
“When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”
“For me writing has always felt like praying even when I wasn’t writing prayers.”
“Writing is part intuition and part trial and error.”
And finally, another Stephen King quote about writing for the road:
“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free so drink. Drink and be filled up.”
There are 25 quotes on writing to inspire you! What was your favourite?
I’d love to know what quotes about writing you love in the comments down below!
