Writing Quotes From
Famous Authors – From Hemingway to Jong
Unles
otherwise specified, these quotations are from Shoptalk: Learning
to Write with Writers by Donald Murray – a wonderful collection of
quotes from successful authors.
For
Discouraged, Rejected Writers
Erica
Jong on writing problems:
·
“All
writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear
of being judged,” said Jong. “If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never
write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts
as if they will never be shown to anyone.” (from The New Writer’s
Handbook)
Madeleine
L’Engle on discouragement:
·
“I got
so discouraged, I almost stopped writing. It was my 12-year-old son who changed
my mind when he said to me, “Mother, you’ve been very cross and edgy with us
and we notice you haven’t been writing. We wish you’d go back to the
typewriter,” said L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time. “That did a lot of good for my
false guilts about spending so much time writing. At that point, I acknowledged
that I am a writer and even if I were never published again, that’s what I am.”
Writing
Quotes to Inspire and Motivate
Walt
Whitman on writing now now now!
·
“The
secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment
– to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style
– without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the
first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote,
wrote…By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught,” said
Whitman.
Anne
Tyler on making up stories:
·
“For me,
writing something down was the only road out…I hated childhood, and spent it
sitting behind a book waiting for adulthood to arrive,” said Tyler. “When I ran
out of books I made up my own. At night, when I couldn’t sleep, I made up
stories in the dark.”
E.B.
White on waiting for the right (write) timing:
·
“A
writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without
putting a word on paper,” said White, author of Charlotte’s Webb and Stuart
Little.
Quotes
on Writing Better (Edit! Edit! Edit!)
Joan
Didion on rewriting:
·
“My
writing is a process of rewriting, of going back and changing and filling in.
In the rewriting process you discover what’s going on, and you go back and
bring it up to that point. Sometimes you’ll just push through, indicate a scene
or a character, leave a space, then go back later and fill it in,” said Didion.
Anne
Lamott on good writing:
·
“Almost
all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start
somewhere. Start by getting something – anything – down on paper,” said Lamott.
“What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a sh**ty first draft is to
quiet the voices in my head. ~ from Bird By Bird – Some Instructions On Writing And Life - but I’m 100% sure Ernest
Hemingway said it first.
Sarah
Ban Breathnach on letting go of your writing:
·
“I
approach my work with a passionate intensity, acting as if its success depends
entirely on me,” says Ban Breathnach, author of Simple Abundance. “But once I’ve done my best, I
try to let go as much as possible and have no expectations about how my work
will be received by the world.”
Quotes
for Blocked Writers
Arthur
Hailey on setting a daily word count:
·
“I set
myself 600 words a day as a minimum output, regardless of the weather, my state
of mind or if I’m sick or well. There must be 600 finished words – not almost
right words. Before you ask, I’ll tell you that yes, I do write 600 at the top
of my pad every day, and I keep track of the word count to insure I reach my
quota daily – without fail,” said Hailey.
Barbara
Sher on taking action:
·
“Action
is absolutely essential for people who don’t know what they want. Action will
help you think better and more clearly than if you sat still and weighed all
the theoretical factors. Even action in the wrong direction is informative,”
says Sher. (from I Could Do Anything…If Only I Knew What
It Was!)
Mark
Twain on giving it your best shot:
·
“Twenty
years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do,” said Mark Twain.
Quotes
on Writing the Lead – Hook Your Reader!
Nora
Ephron on writing the lead:
·
“I don’t
write a word of the article until I have the lead. It just sets the whole tone
– the whole point of view. I know exactly where I’m going as soon as I have the
lead,” said Ephron, author of the screenplay When Harry Met Sally.
Joan
Didion on the first sentence:
·
“What’s
so hard about the first sentence is that you’re stuck with it. Everything else
is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you’ve laid down the
first two sentences, your options are all gone,” said Didion, author of several
novels, non-fiction books, and screenplays
Quotes
on Accepting Yourself as a Writer
Natalie
Goldberg on self-acceptance as a writer:
·
“We have
to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully: few of
us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of
yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The
process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance,” said
Goldberg. (from Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life).
Anne
Lamott on perfectionism:
·
“Perfectionism
is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane
your whole life,” said Lamott. (from Bird By Bird – Some Instructions On Writing And Life)
Margaret
Atwood on the blank page:
·
“The
fact is that blank pages inspire me with terror,” said Margaret Atwood. “What
will I put on them? Will it be good enough? Will I have to throw it out?”
Writing
Inspiration – Quotes From Famous Authors
John
Updike on inspiration:
·
“A few
places are especially conducive to inspiration – automobiles, church – public places.
I plotted Couples almost entirely in church –
little shivers and urgencies I would note down on the program, and carry down
to the office Monday,” said Updike, author of dozens of novels, short stories,
and non-fiction works.
Robert
Cormier on creativity and flow:
·
“What
if? What if? My mind raced, and my emotions kept pace at the sidelines, the way
it always happens when a story idea arrives, like a small explosion of thought
and feeling. What if? What if an incident like that in the park had been crucial
to a relationship between father and daughter? What would make it crucial?
Well, what if the father, say, was divorced from the child’s mother and the
incident happened during one of his visiting days? And what if…” said Cormier,
author of several novels, including I Am The Cheese.
Ernest
Hemingway on when to stop writing:
·
“The
best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will
happen next. If you do that every day when you’re rewriting a novel you will
never be stuck,” said Hemingway.
And
finally, Julia Cameron on finding a writing mentor:
“You are
on the look out for experience, strength, and hope. You want to hear from the
horse’s mouth exactly how disappointments have been survived,” said Cameron.
“It helps to know that the greats have had hard times too and that your own
hard times merely make you part of the club.”
For more
writing quotes from famous authors, read 5 Writing Secrets From William Shakespeare.
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