Writers Quotes

I know that the stories in books don't ever end; the writer just never wrote the whole story. Like how you can't write out all of life. It just keeps going. For better or worse.

From my close observation of writers... they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 20 those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.

Don't be one of those writers who sentence themselves to a lifetime of sucking up to Nabokov.

[on writers] Let their work be to them as is his common work to the common laborer. No gigantic efforts will then be necessary. He need tie no wet towels round his brow, nor sit for thirty hours at his desk without moving,—as men have sat, or said that they have sat.

For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.

No matter what mood a man may be in, when once he has passed through the magic door he can summon the world's greatest to sympathize with him in it. If he be thoughtful, here are the kings of thought. If he be dreamy, here are the masters of fancy. [...] The dead are such good company that one may come to think too little of the living.

Writing is so difficult that I often feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter.

Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something – anything – down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.

The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you’re rewriting a novel you will never be stuck.

I don’t believe in writer’s block. I don’t know what that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I’m going to get through. It’s just a matter of finding a way.

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.

You know which page of a novel is the most difficult to write? It's page 70. The first page is easy: it's exciting, it's new, a whole world lies in front of you. The last page is easy: you've got there at last, you know what's going to happen, all you have to do is find a resonant closing sentence. But page 70 is where the misery strikes.

That's how novels get written. You write... You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

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.

When in doubt have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.

Part of what makes a language "alive" is its constant evolution. [...] I love editing "Harry" with Arthur Levine, my American editor -- the differences between "British English" (of which there must be at least 200 versions) and "American English" (ditto!) are a source of constant interest and amusement to me.

I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I'm in good company there.