Quotes on Writing From Famous Authors

Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.

Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything really good.

There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't write.

I can’t write five words but that I change seven.

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself...It's a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

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.

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

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.