No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself. VIRGINIA WOOLF

https://twitter.com/AdviceToWriters

I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

JOHN BERRYMAN

I choose to write about people whose values I respect; my pleasure is to bear witness to their lives. WM. ZINSSER

To write you have to have stories you want to tell, you have to keep your mind alive... TRACY KIDDER

There is not much kick in the milk of human kindness. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Put in the time. SUE GRAFTON

I believe that you either love the work or the rewards. Life is a lot easier if you love the work. JANE SMILEY

Writing is nothing more than organized thinking captured in written language…”

To make a great film you need three things: the script, the script and the script. ALFRED HITCHCOCK

I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles. SHANNON HALE

I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live. FRANÇOISE SAGAN

"Write, if you must, because you feel like writing, never because you ought to write…” http://www.advicetowriters.com/home/2010/2/15/write-because-you-feel-like-writing.html …

Writing is not a serious business. It’s a joy and a celebration. You should be having fun with it. RAY BRADBURY

I imagine [characters] very clearly and then attempt to describe what I can see. Sometimes I draw them for my own amusement! J.K. ROWLING

The idea of “women’s writing” shocks me. I think that in art we are androgynous. NATHALIE SARRAUTE

It doesn't have to be the truth, just your vision of it, written down. VIRGINIA WOOLF

Don’t judge it. Just write it. Don’t judge it. It’s not for you to judge it. PHILIP ROTH

Write as often as possible, not with the idea at once of getting into print, but as if you were learning an instrument. J. B. PRIESTLEY

For me, writing something down was the only road out. ANNE TYLER

Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you. BEATRIX POTTER

An artist's job is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention. If we stumble into truth, we got lucky. AARON SORKIN

I live with the people I create and it has always made my essential loneliness less keen. CARSON McCULLERS

An artist's job is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention. If we stumble into truth, we got lucky. AARON SORKIN

I live with the people I create and it has always made my essential loneliness less keen. CARSON McCULLERS

"I think 'writer’s block' may be just a euphemism for 'being scared' or 'being lazy'….” Stephen Romano

When I’m finished, I’m elated. I feel like I’ve swung from the heels and knocked one out of the park. KURT VONNEGUT

To write a poem you must first create a pen that will write what you want to say. …This is the work of a lifetime. JIM HARRISON

Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. ISABEL ALLENDE

"Emotion is the engine of all great fiction; all great books engage the heart as well as the mind…”roxana-robinson

Words should be an intense pleasure to a writer just as leather should be to a shoemaker. EVELYN WAUGH

Things Start to Happen On Their Own: http://www.advicetowriters.com/home/2016/2/29/things-start-to-happen-on-their-own.html

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. STEPHEN KING

Ira Glass’s Advice to Beginning Reporters: http://www.advicetowriters.com/home/2010/3/7/advice-to-beginning-reporters.html …

I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself. J.K. ROWLING

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open. NATALIE GOLDBERG

The author should keep his mouth shut when his work begins to speak. NIETZSCHE

"Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read…”

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. ROBERT CORMIER

Great art can only be created out of love. JAMES BALDWIN

[Comedy writing is] torturous experience….⁰ Once it’s out in the world, there’s very little you can do to change it. TINA FEY

Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible. DORIS LESSING

Good writing is deceptive in that it hides its own artifice — it makes it seem easy. MICHAEL ARNDT

The language must be careful and appear effortless. It must not sweat. It must suggest and be provocative at the same time. TONI MORRISON

Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count. DR. SEUSS