One of my favorite things to do in my spare time, or when I'm knee-deep in work and simply need some inspiration, is to look up popular quotes.
I love doing this because there's an endless supply of quotes online these days. In fact, finding quotes that matter most to you is as simple as Googling, "quotes about ..." They can be funny, thought-provoking and inspiring. They can be about love, work, life, empowerment, and even work-life balance. They can come from movies, actors, politicians, authors, singers, artists, and sports legends. Quotes are everywhere.
For the benefit of my fellow writers out there, here are 20 of my favorite quotes about writing. Most of these I found on popular sites like BrainyQuote and Goodreads.
Enjoy!
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"Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
– William Faulkner
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.” – Henry David Thoreau
“I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.” – William Carlos Williams
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."
– Benjamin Franklin
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
– Ernest Hemingway
"It ain't whatcha write, it's the way atcha write it."
– Jack Kerouac, WD
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
– William Wordsworth
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” – Ernest Hemingway
"A man's grammar, like Caesar's wife, should not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity."
– Edgar Allan Poe
"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
– Mark Twain
"The scariest moment is always just before you start."
– Stephen King
"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."
– E.L. Doctorow
"This is how you do it: 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
“For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.” – Catherine Drinker Bowen
"And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for awhile is just bliss."
– J.K. Rowling
"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on."
– Louis L'Amour
“I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.” – Harper Lee, WD
"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done."
– Steven Wright
“The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.” – Robert Benchley
*STEVE GAMEL is the Owner/President of Edit This, a writing and editing services company located in Denton, TX. Along with being a sports writer for the Denton Record-Chronicle, Steve handles anything involving the written word. Give him a call today to help give your business a clear voice.