Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

1
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
Composition is, for the most part, an act of slow
diligence to which the mind is dragged by
necessity or resolution.
2
Winston Churchill, 1874-1965
History will be kind to me for I intend to
write it.
3
Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1904-91
The wastepaper basket is the writer's best
friend.
4
Dorothy Parker, 1893-1967
This is not a book that should be tossed lightly
aside. It should be hurled with great force.
5
Ursula K. Le Guin, 1929-
The unread story is not a story it is little
black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it,
makes it live a live thing, a story.
6
Louise Brooks, 1906-85
Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent
elimination.
7
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900
My ambition is to say in ten sentences what
everyone else says in an entire book.
8
Elmore Leonard,1925-
My most important piece of advice to all you
would-be writers when you write, try to leave
out all the parts readers skip.
9
Gloria Steinem, 1934-
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I
don't feel I should be doing something else.
10
Truman Capote, 1924-84
I believe more in the scissors than I do in the
pencil.
11
Blaise Pascal, 1623-62
I have made this letter longer, because I have
not had the time to make it shorter.
12
Toni Morrison, 1931-
If there is a book you really want to read but it
hasnt been written yet, then you must write it.
13
Lord Acton, 1834-1902
Learn as much by writing as by reading.
14
Moses Hadas, 1900-1966
Thank you for sending me your book. I shall
waste no time reading it.
15
Robert Heinlein, 1907-88
Writing is not necessarily something to be
ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your
hands afterwards.
16
Flannery OConnor, 1925-64
Everywhere I go, I'm asked if the universities
stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't
stifle enough of them.
17
Jack London, 1876-1916
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go
after it with a club.
18
Madeleine LEngle, 1918-
Inspiration usually comes during work, rather
than before it.
19
Wilson Mizner, 1876-1933
When you take stuff from one writer, it's
plagiarism. But when you take it from many
writers, it's research.
20
Thomas Mann, 1875-1955
A writer is a person for whom writing is more
difficult than it is for other people.
21
Kingsley Amis, 1922-95
If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point
in writing.
22
Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877
The reason so few good books are written is that
so few people who can write know anything.
23
Robert Frost, 1874-1963
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
24
Richard Peck
Writing is communication, not self-expression.
Nobody in this world wants to read your diary
except your mother.
25
Jessamyn West, 1902-84
Writing is so difficult that I feel that writers,
having had their hell on earth, will escape all
punishment hereafter.
26
Benjamin Franklin, 1706-90
Either write something worth reading or do
something worth writing.
27
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
The two most engaging powers of an author are, to
make new things familiar, and familiar things new.
28
Susan Sontag, 1933-2004
Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you
dream of becoming a writer.
29
Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all
the morning, and took out a comma. In the
afternoon I put it back again.
30
Isaac Asimov, 1920-92
If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live,
I'd type a little faster.
31
Ezra Pound, 1885-1972
Literature is news that STAYS news.
32
Agatha Christie, 1890-1976
I've always believed in writing without a
collaborator, because where two people are
writing the same book, each believes he gets all
the worry and only half the royalties.
33
Cyril Connolly, 1903-74
Literature is the art of writing something that
will be read twice journalism what will be
grasped at once.
34
Albert Camus, 1913-60
Bad authors write with respect to an inner
context that the reader cannot know.
35
Molière, 1622-1673
I always do the first line well, but I have
trouble doing the others.
36
Katherine Anne Porter, 1890-1980
Most people wont realize that writing is a
craft. You have to take your apprenticeship in
it like anything else.
37
John Steinbeck, 1902-68
The profession of book writing makes horse racing
seem like a solid, stable business.
38
Alexander Pope, 1688-1744
True ease in writing comes from art, not
chance, As those move easiest who have learned to
dance.
39
Don Marquis, 1878-1937
i never think at all when i write nobody can do
two things at the same time and do them both
well.
40
E. M. Forster, 1879-1970
How do I know what I think until I see what I
say?
41
Anais Nin, 1903-77
We write to taste life twice, in the moment and
in retrospection.
42
Mark Twain, 1835-1910
Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities.
Truth isnt.
43
Pliny the Younger, 61-105 A.D.
There is nothing to write about, you say. Well
then, write and let me know just this that
there is nothing to write about.
44
Rebecca West, 1892-1983
Journalism an ability to meet the challenge of
filling the space.
45
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
Your manuscript is both good and original, but
the part that is good is not original, and the
part that is original is not good.
46
Lillian Hellman, 1905-1984
If I had to give young writers advice, I would
say dont listen to writers talking about writing
or themselves.
47
Raymond Chandler, 1870-1959
When in doubt, have a man come through the door
with a gun in his hand.
48
Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961
The most essential gift for a good writer is a
built-in, shock-proof st detector.
49
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1751-1816
Easy writing makes curst hard reading.
50
W. Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965
Writing is the supreme solace.
51
Chamfort, 1741-94
Most of todays books have an air of having been
written in one day from books read the night
before.
52
Herman Melville, 1819-91
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a
mighty theme.
53
Mickey Spillane, 1918-
The first chapter sells the book. The last
chapter sells the next book.
54
Willa Cather, 1873-1947
Most of the basic material a writer works with is
acquired before the age of fifteen.
55
Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1821-81
There is no subject so old that something new
cannot be said about it.
56
Laurence Sterne, 1713-68
Writing, when properly managed, is but a
different name for conversation.
57
H. L. Mencken, 1880-1956
There is in writing the constant joy of sudden
discovery, happy accident.