Quotes with the word write

The best way to become a better writer is to write and then to publish your writing, whether you publish it on a blog, in a book, or with a close friend. It’s only by practicing writing, and getting feedback on it, that you can improve.

That being said, it never hurts to learn from those who have gone before you, and over the years, we’ve compiled a lot of excellent advice from the best writers on how to become a better writer.

Favorite Quotes from Writers in Our Community

I asked authors in our community for their favorite quotes on writing or being a writer, and here’s what they sent me.

1. How You Write a Book, According to Neil Gaiman

From Carole Wolfe, author of My Best Mistake, and M MacKinnon, author of The Comyn’s Curse:

2. Why We Write, According to Walt Whitman

From Melanie Lambert, author of Wonder Woman in Disguise:

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering… these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love… these are what we stay alive for.”

― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

3. What You Must Write, According to Toni Morrison

From Michelle Dalton, author of Epona, and Joslyn Chase, author of Steadman’s Blind:

4. How to Write the Right Word, According to Mark Twain

From Ichabod Ebenezer, author of A Shadow Stained in Blood:

5. What Writing Is, According to Isaac Asimov

From Jeff Elkins, author of Grab:

6. On the Path to Writing Success, According to Octavia E. Butler

From S.J. Henderson, author of Daniel the Drawer:

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” —Octavia E. Butler

7. Why We Doubt Our Own Writing, According to Ira Glass

From Ross Boone, author of The Absent Landlord: 

“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. . . . For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. . . . But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.” —Ira Glass

8. Why Writing Requires Empathy, According to John Barth (and Sarah Gribble)

From Sarah Gribble, author of The Hike:

“Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.” John Barth

In other words:

More Favorite Writing Quotes

Need more writing quotes? Read on for more of our favorites:

9. Why You Became a Writer, According to Gloria Steinem

10. Why You Became a Writer, According to George Orwell

“[You write out of the] desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, etc., etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive and a strong one.” —George Orwell

11. Why You Became a Writer, According to Anaïs Nin

12. That Doesn’t Mean Writing Is Easy

“Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of job: It’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.” —Neil Gaiman

13. Start Writing Now

14. And Write Quickly

15. What To Write About

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” —Natalie Goldberg

16. Be Willing to Write Badly

17. Don’t Doubt Yourself

18. All Great Writers Are a Little Crazy

“The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.” —William Styron

19. The Only Way to Fail As a Writer…

20. Just Write One True Sentence

21. Just Write Something Simple

22. Your Big Ideas are Worthless

23. Really Worthless

(I don’t consider myself the equal of George R.R. Martin, Ernest Hemingway, or Sylvia Plath… yet… but this quote seemed important to include.)

24. Don’t Let Anything Interfere With Your Writing

“Find your best time of the day for writing and write. Don’t let anything else interfere. Afterwards it won’t matter to you that the kitchen is a mess.” —Esther Freud

25. Keep At It

“I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.” —Chinua Achebe

26. Write Even When the World is Chaotic

27. The Mark of a Master Writer

“The mark of a master is to select only a few moments but to give us a lifetime.” —Robert McKee

28. No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.

29. Stay Drunk on Writing

30. Writing is like kissing

31. Don’t Make a Chore for Your Readers

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.” —Dr. Seuss

32. Show, Don’t Tell

33. How to Develop Your Own Style

34. Writing is More Difficult for Us

35. No One Knows the Rules

36. The best way to become a writer

37. Always Listen to Ben Franklin

38. Your Words Have Power

39. Chase Your Dream

40. Writing in the Dark

41. Turn the Monsters Loose

42. Stories Are All Around You

43. Write Now

44. The Secret Professional Writers Know

45. Follow Your Hero

46. Exercise Your Writing Muscle

47. But Actually, Exercise Your Writing Muscle

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” —Jane Yolen

48. Your Writing Is Your Strength

49. The Real Challenge: Avoiding Distraction

50. Just Tell a Story

“I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.” —Edgar Rice Burroughs

51. Perseverance Is Key

52. Your Villains Think They’ve Got it Right

53. Write First, Edit Later

54. Your Hero’s Job

55. Plan, Then Adjust

56. Read, Read, Then Read Some More

57. How to Keep Your Readers Hooked

Which quote is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.

Here are ten of our favourite quotes about writing, from those who should probably know the most about it – writers themselves. Some of them are witty quotes, others profound, some a mixture. We hope you enjoy them.

‘Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.’

– Neil Gaiman

‘God may reduce you on Judgment Day to tears of shame, reciting by heart the poems you would have written, had your life been good.’

– W. H. Auden

‘A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.’

– Thomas Mann

‘Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.’

– Cyril Connolly

‘The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is that he’s given the freedom to starve wherever he likes.’

– S. J. Perelman

‘The original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.’

– François-René de Chateaubriand

‘I think the hardest thing about writing is writing.’

– Nora Ephron

‘A writer – and, I believe, generally all persons – must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource.’

– Jorge Luis Borges

‘And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it.’

– Sylvia Plath

‘How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.’

– Henry David Thoreau

Image: Neil Gaiman, signing books after a reading from ‘Anansi Boys’ in Berkeley, 2005 © 2005 Jutta, share-alike licence.

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Write what should not be forgotten. Isabel Allende

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. Ernest Hemingway

Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. David Foster Wallace

We write to taste life in the moment and in retrospect. Anais Nin

Writing is its own reward. Henry Miller

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A writer is a world trapped in a person. Victor Hugo

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. William Wordsworth

Without great solitude no serious work is possible. Pablo Picasso

Good things, when short, are twice as good. Baltasar Gracián

Go inside where silence is. Stay there. Let words bubble up. Maxime Lagacé

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All bad writers are in love with the epic. Ernest Hemingway

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. Louis L’Amour

Write with conviction. Pick a side and be bold. And if you’re wrong, admit it. Jeff Goins

There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story. Frank Herbert

If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write. Martin Luther

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• 100 Reading Quotes Every Book Lover Can Relate To

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The first draft of everything is shit. Ernest Hemingway

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed. Ernest Hemingway

Write while the heat is in you… The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. Henry David Thoreau

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow

I had so many ideas. Jammed up. It was like they just needed permission to come out. Stephen King

You go where the story leads you. Stephen King

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. Ray Bradbury

You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write. Saul Bellow

I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on until I am. Jane Austen

I don’t want just words. If that’s all you have for me, you’d better go. F. Scott Fitzgerald

Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing. Melinda Haynes

A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life. E.B. White

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Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself. Truman Capote

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. Jack Kerouac

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. Tom Clancy

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly. C. J. Cherryh

Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery. Henry Miller

It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it. Jack Kerouac

Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading. Eudora Welty

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

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. Blaise Pascal

No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. Robin Williams

Part 2. Writing Quotes That Are…

The Most Famous Writing Quotes (Hemingway, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, etc.)

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The road to hell is paved with adverbs. Stephen King

A short saying often contains much wisdom. Sophocles

Writing for me is a kind of compulsion, so I don’t think anyone could have made me do it, or prevented me from doing it. J.K. Rowling

Don’t let the bastards grind you down. Margaret Atwood

Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. Virginia Woolf

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. Gilbert K. Chesterton

You can write nothing of value unless you give yourself wholly to the the theme – and when you so give yourself – you lose appetite ans sleep – it cannot be helped. Charlotte Brontë

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. Benjamin Franklin

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We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down. Kurt Vonnegut

The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life. Zadie Smith

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. Winston Churchill

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Maya Angelou

People should be interested in books, not their authors. Agatha Christie

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes. Andre Gide

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends. Friedrich Nietzsche

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

Fiction is the truth inside the lie. Stephen King

Writing is the painting of the voice. Voltaire

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison

Write drunk, edit sober. Ernest Hemingway

Short Writing Quotes

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One-liners, short writing quotes, thoughts and captions for your bio, social status, self-talk, motto, mantra, signs, posters, wallpapers, backgrounds.

A word after a word after a word is power. Margaret Atwood

If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word. Margaret Atwood

Writers live twice. Natalie Goldberg

I allow my intuition to lead my path. Manuel Puig

Be obscure clearly. E.B. White

Writers who don’t write weekly, write weakly. James Clear

A story should entertain the writer, too. Stephen King

The adverb is not your friend. Stephen King

There is no perfect time to write. There’s only now. Barbara Kingsolver

Tears are words that need to be written. Paulo Coelho

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity. G.K. Chesterton

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Elmore Leonard

You must kill all your darlings. William Faulkner

The pain you feel when you write is actually the pain of clarifying your thinking. David Perell

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. Herman Melville

To survive, you must tell stories. Umberto Eco

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Inspirational Writing Quotes

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You can make anything by writing. C.S. Lewis

Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve. J.K. Rowling

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love. Ray Bradbury

Shoot for the top, always. You know you’ll never make it, but what’s the fun if you don’t shoot for the top? Ursula K. Le Guin

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. Vladimir Nabokov

Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little. Holly Gerth

You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence. Octavia E. Butler

If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter. Dan Poynter

To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing. Pablo Picasso

Unwritten thoughts slip away like last night’s dreams. A good sentence can carry the light of insight, undimmed, across years, decades, and centuries. The Stoic Emperor

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

Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. Franz Kafka

Long patience and application saturated with your heart’s blood — you will either write or you will not — and the only way to find out whether you will or not is to try. Jim Tully

Be strategic and resilient in the pursuit of your dreams. That sounds like a cheesy quote, right? But nah, I’m serious. Resilience is one hell of a quality to master and not many have the skin for it. Tiffany D. Jackson

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. Richard Bach

On writers: They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth. Arthur Schopenhauer

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. Neil Gaiman

The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising. Stephen King

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good. William Faulkner

Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop, and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to. Stephen King

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up. Jane Yolen

Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Stephen King

I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it. Chinua Achebe

The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work. Augusten Burroughs

The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea. Thomas Mann

It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way. Ernest Hemingway

You wanna fly, you got to give up the sh*t that weighs you down. Toni Morrison

Conclusion

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Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. Toni Morrison

You will fail. It’s inevitable. It’s what you do with it. J.K. Rowling

Further Readings

• Topic: Education
• 100 Education Quotes That Will Inspire You To Keep Growing
• 100 Knowledge Quotes That Will Change Your Perspective
• 100 Curiosity Quotes To Increase Your Desire To Learn
• 12 Lessons Learned from 12 Years of Writing (copyblogger.com)
• 100 Humanity Quotes That Will Touch Your Heart
• 150 Art Quotes To Bring Out Your Inner Artist

Hope you enjoyed these inspiring writing quotes. If you did, please share them with a friend today!

Do you write often? What’s your favorite writing quote? And remember: words can transform your life, if you find the right ones.