Hi readers! This week I wanted to try a different type of blog post, so I’m sharing some of my favorite writing quotes. Some are inspirational, some are sarcastic and hilarious, and some are just painfully accurate and will strike a chord with any writer. Let me know if you have other writing quotes you would add to this list!
1. “Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.” -Stephen King
2. “You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” -Jodi Picoult
3. “A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.” -Stephen King
4. “You must write every single day of your life. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads.”
-Ray Bradbury
5. “Write with the door closed; rewrite with the door open.” -Stephen King
6. “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” -William Wordsworth
7. “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” -Margaret Atwood
8. “Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.”
-Ernest Hemingway
9. “I’m a writer. Therefore, I am not sane.” -Edgar Allan Poe
10. “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”
-Anne Lamott
11. “You ask me why I spend my life writing? Do I find entertainment? Is it worthwhile? Above all, does it pay? If not, then, is there a reason? I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be stilled.” -Sylvia Plath
12. “When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” -Stephen King
13. “Kill your darlings, kill your darling, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” -Stephen King
14. “The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.” -T.S. Eliot
15. “Writing is something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.” -John Green
16. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” -Maya Angelou
17. “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” -Anton Chekhov
18. “Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do- to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.” -Stephen King
19. “The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.” -Ernest Hemingway
20. “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” -Sylvia Plath
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