"Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled." ~ Dean Koontz
"If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster." ~ Isaac Asimov
"A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing." ~ Eugene Ionesco
"Writing makes no noise, except groans, and it can be done everywhere, and it is done alone." ~ Ursula K. LeGuin
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." ~ Cyril Connolly
"We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to." ~ Somerset Maugham
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." ~ Red Smith
"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." ~ Robert Frost
"Writing is the flip side of sex – it's good only when it's over." ~ Hunter S. Thompson
"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." ~ Robert A. Heinlein
"If you are pointing out one of the things a story is about, then you are very probably right; if you are pointing out the only thing a story is about you are very probably wrong - even if you're the author." ~ Neil Gaiman
"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors." ~ Rhys Alexander
"Resist the temptation to try to use dazzling style to conceal weakness of substance." ~ Stanley Schmidt
"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action." ~ William Shakespeare
"When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand." ~ Raymond Chandler
"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shock-proof shit-detector." ~ Ernest Hemingway
"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
"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." ~ Ursula K. Le Guin
"There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you." ~ Zora Neale Hurston
These are great. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHunter S. Thompson's version is a little jazzier than this, but I always tell people that I don't really like writing, but I do like *having written*.
ReplyDeleteNice list. (Nice colors, too.)
The only thing worse that being a writer is being a reader of bad writing.
ReplyDeleteNice quotes. I like this feature of yours.
ReplyDeleteLove it.
ReplyDeleteI love quotes. Most of these were new to me - thanks for sharing.
I so dig that.
ReplyDeleteAnd also, from a writer's perspective, you might enjoy this:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
I've always said I'm a quote whore... whore, junkie... yeah, same thing. :)
Great quotes! And a lovely reminder that Somerset Maugham is the nicest name, ever...it totally rolls of the tongue...
ReplyDeleteGreat quotes! I agree, I'm either writing or thinking about writing. But it's not maddening to me like engineering was - it's fulfilling.
ReplyDeleteall vey true...very true indeed.
ReplyDelete