Writers / Writing - Qutoes

In order to write the novel I'm committed to, I have to pretend that it's not only separate from everything I've written before, but also separate from anything anyone in the history of the universe has written. This is a grotesque delusion and a crass vanity, but also a creative necessity. - Julian Barnes

In secluding himself too much from society, an author is in danger of losing that intimate acquaintance with life which is the only sure foundation of power in a writer. - Christian Nestell Bovee

In the writing process, the more the story cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest. I find dreams particularly useful. I myself think a great deal before I go to sleep and the details sometimes unfold in the dream. - Doris Lessing

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable. - John Steinbeck

In writing ... remember that the biggest stories are not written about wars, or about politics, or even murders. The biggest stories are written about the things which draw human beings closer together. - Susan Glaspell

It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way. - Ernest Hemingway

It's hard work, writing, you know. Honestly, a fight every day against your own limitations. You have to squeeze books out of your brain, you're constantly trying to solve challenges. I think most writers enjoy the feeling of having written something, rather than the process of writing it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It's tremendously hard work. Yes, I love arranging the words and having them fall on the ear the right way and you know you're not quite there and you're redoing it and redoing it and there's a wonderful thrill to it. But it is hard. - Elizabeth Strout

It's very unlikely that a writer is going to make a living by writing. So then the question is: how do you balance work, life, and writing? - Kelly Link

Keep your head down, avoid all the distractions of being a writer today – all the shifts in the business, all the drama, all the debating about where publishing is going – and write the best story that you can. It sounds a bit glib, but I think this is advice a lot of people are having trouble following right now. It is so hard to focus. But that is the single key to success. - Jeff Abbott

Learn to write well, or not to write at all. - John Dryden

My job is not to try to give readers what they want but to try to make readers want what I give. - China Mieville

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity. - George Bernard Shaw

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip. - Elmore Leonard

No writing has any real value which is not the expression of genuine thought and feeling. - Eleanor Roosevelt