Quotes About Writing

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for?

     - Alice Walker

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

     - Albert Camus

Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.

     - David Ben Gurion

One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language.

     - Denise Levertov

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.

     - E B White

I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.

     - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.

     - Gloria Steinem

Good things, when short, are twice as good.

     - Baltasar Gracián

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

     - Isaac Asimov

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.

     - Pearl S Buck

Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.

     - Jessamyn West

Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.

     - Oscar Wilde

I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.

     - Pearl S Buck

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

     - Stephen King

I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out, that is the reason why I compose.

     - Ludwig van Beethoven.

Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing.

     - Heather Armstrong

Good writing takes more than just time; it wants your best moments and the best of you.

     - Real Live Preacher