Because every
story begins
with words

Arthur Balfour

Biography should be written by an acute enemy.

Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

Roddy Doyle

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

C. J. Cherryh

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

Stephen Wright

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

M. K. Simmons

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

E. B. White

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

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Robert Benchley

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

William Faulkner

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.

Truman Capote Quote

I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.

John Legend

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.

Quentin Tarantino

If you start with a bang, you won’t end with a whimper.

T.S. Eliot

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer. You’re a waiter.

Dan Poynter

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

Roald Dahl

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

Jeanette Walls

If the sex scene doesn’t make you want to do it — whatever it is they’re doing — it hasn’t been written right.

Sloan Wilson

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne