Do you ever find yourself aimlessly scrolling through pages of quotes until you’ve forgotten what you were looking for in the first place? Well that’s what I was doing the other day, for no other reason than to procrastinate. I think it started with a googling of a favourite author and spiraled from there, as things do.
Because sometimes our favourite writers say something so profound that we want to print it out and stick it on the wall. And sometimes writers that we don’t like say something so brilliant that we wish someone else had said it!
This is a short list of some of my favourite quotes about writing. Some of them are inspiration, some are instructional, and some are just nice to read. The last one’s a bit long and I know I’ve used it on Limebird before, but I love it too much to leave it out!
1.
If I waited till I felt like writing, I’d never write anything at all. – Anne Tyler
2.
Start as close to the end as possible. – Kurt Vonnegut
3.
There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be. – Doris Lessing
4.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. – Mark Twain
5.
One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. – Jack Kerouac
6.
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. – Barbara Kingsolver
7.
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. – Orson Scott Card
8.
Easy writing makes hard reading. – Ernest Hemingway
9.
The scariest moment is always just before you start. – Stephen King
10.
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important. – Gary Provost
Do you have any favourite quotes about writing? Are there any quotes that you love that were written by writers that you don’t? Or vice versa?
