Because every
story begins
with words

Alice Munro

Anecdotes don’t make good stories. Generally, I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.

I haven’t got 10 rules that guarantee success, though I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.

J.K. Rowling

Editor: A person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

Elbert Hubbard

I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.

Stephen Wright

Ever heard of a carpenter not going to work because he has “carpenter’s block”? If a writer can’t write, it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper or he’s just plain lazy.

Chet Cunningham

Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.

Harlan Ellison

Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul.

M. K. Simmons

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

Joseph Conrad

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

Mickey Spillane

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.

Stephen Leigh

It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.

Bob Dylan

A writer is a world trapped in a person.

Victor Hugo

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.

Roald Dahl

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.

Jeanette Walls

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.

George Singleton

My aim is to put down what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way I can tell it.

Ernest Hemingway

Just don’t be boring!

Robert Liebmann

The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.

George Bernard Shaw