The Craft Quotes

If you do not want to be forgotten as soon as you are dead...be read, or try coming back and pull the feet of those who are still alive instead!

The secret to good writing is to use small words for big ideas, not to use big words for small ideas.

Good writing is more about graft and craft than inspiration and aspiration.

Replace your old books with the book you've always wanted to write.

Every word I write is another stroke that takes me to the shore of a completed book.

Replace your old books with the books you’ve always wanted to write.

I know it's difficult in the beginning. But, listen. If you have the impulse to write, do yourself a favor, do the world a favor, and write.

Just write. That's my only tip. And read. I guess that's two.

Most days, writing simply requires work-ethic, discipline, clarity, focus, time. Other days...it will demand absolutely everything of you.

When a solid first draft of an original tale is complete...you feel as if you could do anything.

Don't be afraid of what you're creating.

Let life be the foundation. Be brave. Wander deep inside yourself to the little room no one knows about. Fling the door wide open and write.

A writer needs to ingest love to be passionate. Passion is a metabolite of love, and good writing is an active metabolite of passion.

Witches are liberated from their own fears and limited thinking. In turn, their presence has the power to liberate and consciously expand others.

Everything is like a wall. Said a scholar to the troll. Bang your head to go on through. Then you'll see, there is no queue.

How many great gems were lost to thoughtand not put down to pen.You can but think of just a fewand then they're lost again.

Do not justify art, once you do, it limits the feelings it is apt to inflict. Art with Boundaries shadows all its principles.

Writing to corroborate what you already think is the essence of bad writing.

Does any program really improve anybody, as much as simply identifying them? And, after identifying them, not ruining them?

Does any (MFA) program really improve anybody, as much as simply identifying them? And, after identifying them, not ruining them?

It is easy to find the problem. Knowing the difference between critique and criticism is the solution. Condition your rawhide for growth. (Either way).

Characters begin as your children and become your teachers.

A story that has nothing but action and plot is a pretty poor affair

Stories not only give us a much needed practice on figuring out what makes people tick, they give us insight into how we tick.

...the making of stories is only one part of my craft -mainly, I'm a heart whisperer...

...the most beautiful things don't always make you happy - often they make you weep...

An author is like an incompetent bricklayer - doesn't use mortar and keeps rearranging the bricks until someone tells him to stop.

I personally believe that one learns to write by writing.

The moment I realize I just stayed up until five in the morning writing is that moment I know I am meant to be a writer.

If a pen can communicate our thoughts, dreams, and emotions and be the voice of our soul, then ink is the medium that carries the message.

I write into an old book that smells of dust and whose pages are floppy with damp. Sometimes the ink splodges onto the paper, other times it will barely leave the nib of my pen.

Each time I write, I reaffirm my soul.

Where the writing takes place doesn’t matter to a publisher, but it matters a great deal to the author.

What compels me to write now is the same as all those years ago. It is the love of writing and storytelling, driven by a desire to escape.

Authors - trust in your vision.

Writing is a craft, being an author is work, and having readers and a following is a gift.

Be so good with your craft to the point that you would no longer have to beg for opportunities.

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three

The day when on the cover of my books, my name will appear in bigger fond than the title of my book- I will stop writing because that would be the death of the writer in me.

To make the world. To make it again and again. To make it in the very maelstrom of its undoing.

Restrictions and writing shouldn't mix. Let your mind be open. Let it be a creative canvas.

Sometimes writing is just rubbing words together long enough to make a fire.

For the artisan, craft is an end in itself. For you, the artist, craft is the vehicle for expressing your vision. Craft is the visible edge of art.

There is something deeply satisfying in shaping something with your hands. Proper artificing is like a song made solid. It is an act of creation.

Every artist needs canvass, mine just happens to be Microsoft Word and a Thesaurus.

Jesus--if Kilgore Trout could only write!" Rosewater exclaimed. He had a point: Kilgore Trout's unpopularity was deserved. His prose was frightful. Only his ideas were good.

Some think that they are incredible but are actually un-credible. Do you work, master your craft...

Words are the writer's sorcery, our dark arts and our sleight of hand. They're our enchantment and our temptation

I would be quite wise to realize that I will never craft a solution that will be the ‘end-all, ’ and that God’s ability to craft perfect solutions never ends ‘at-all.

I should be writing ...