Quotes about writing
377 quotes from 206 people
Tom Stoppard1937–2025The Real Thing (1982), Act II, scene V
Malcolm X1925–1965Speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem (13 December 1964), later published in Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (1965), edited by George Breitman, p. 93All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Green Hills of Africa (1935), Part I, Ch. 1Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate,
That few but such as cannot write, translate.
John Denham1615–1669To Sir Richard Fanshaw (1648), line 1
Anthony Burgess1917–1993A Mouthful of Air: Language and Languages, Especially English (1992)
Virginia Woolf1882–1941A Room of One’s Own (1929), Ch. 3, pp. 43-44
Ben Jonson1572–1637To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare (First Folio, 1623), line 43
Amy Goodmanborn 1957Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (2016), Introduction
Rod Serling1924–1975The Twilight Zone, “The Fugitive” (1962).
Rachel Carson1907–1964Acceptance speech of the National Book Award for Nonfiction (1952)I don’t perceive my role as a newsman at all. I’m a comedian from stem to stern.
Stephen Colbertborn 1964When asked what he perceives his role to be, given that many young people claim to get their news from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, on newsman.”Harvard University: A Conversation with Stephen Colbert” (1 December 2006).Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.
Carl Sagan1934–1996Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980), Episode 11, “The Persistence of Memory”- KKKen Kesey1935–2001The Paris Review interview (1994)
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury1671–1713Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), Vol. 1, p. 8; “A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm”.
James Baldwin1924–1987“Autobiographical Notes” (1952)