Writing Quotes

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.

There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good reader.

Just tell the truth, and they'll accuse you of writing black humor.

Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you.

I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.

What you have to realize when you write poetry, or if you love poetry, is that poetry is just naturally the greatest god damn thing that ever was in the whole universe

Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try.

Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.

If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

If I upset you, don't stress. Never forget That God isn't finished with me yet. I feel His hand on my brain... When I write rhymes, I go blind and let the Lord do His thang.

Every word written is a victory against death.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Let there be no inscription upon my tomb; let no man write my epitaph: no man can write my epitaph.

Writing should be an adventure, shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, blessed with amazing grace. In theory, of course

Anyone who has a choice and doesn't choose to write is a fool. The work is hard, the perks are few, the pay is terrible, and the product, when it's finally finished, is pure joy.

Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

Good English, well spoken and well written will open more doors than a college degree... Bad English will slam doors you don't even know exist.

Every artist was first an amateur.

Maybe you're one of those people who writes poems, but rarely reads them. Let me put this as delicately as I can: If you don't read, your writing is going to suck.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

You're miserable, edgy and tired. You're in the perfect mood for journalism.

I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.

Believe in your character. Animate (or write) with sincerity.

When I type a title page, I hold it and I look at it and I think, I just need four thousand sentences to go with this and I’ll have a book.

Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

Writing well has everything to do with being able to read one's own work with an eye toward the unmet possibilities that are there.

All writing is a process of elimination.

Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing.

Writing is easy. Just sit in front of a typewriter, open up a vein and bleed it out drop by drop.

Places are extremely important when writing a long story because place shapes a character.

Short stories can be rather stark and bare unless you put in the right details. Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.

The Hank Williams Syndrome: Come to Nashville, write some good songs, cut some hit records, make money, take all the drugs you can and drink all you can, become a wild man and all of a sudden die.

I still love sparkles and grocery shopping and really old cats that are only nice to you half the time. I still love writing in my journal and wearing dresses all the time and staring at chandeliers.

There are no mistakes or accidents. The present is malleable. Influence the odds. Free will is your pen, write your life.

If you wanna write a song, ask a guitar

It was a great thrill just to know Roy Orbison, so to play, sing, write hit songs with him and have him in The Traveling Wilburys was beyond my wildest dreams!

I write music, it’s performed. After all, my music says it all. It doesn’t need historical and hysterical commentaries. In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music.

Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance.

It's easier to find a new audience than to write a new speech.

Anarchists prepare for social revolution and use every means - speech, writing, or deed, whichever is more to the point; to accelerate revolutionary development.

Sin writes histories, goodness is silent.

I believe there's a common ground in what all gifted writers write. It has to do with their wish to turn darkness into light.

The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.

Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.

Now, when I was in the Army, writing was my hobby.

The shorter and the plainer the better.

We write. How fortunate we are: The world does not close in on us. The world does not grow smaller.

I try and write honestly about what I see around me now.