Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about writing

377 quotes from 206 people

Most readBy personPage 18 of 26

All writers have concealed more than they revealed.
Anaïs Nin1903–1977The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5
I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live.
Anaïs Nin1903–1977February 1954 The Diary of Anaïs Nin Vol. 5 (1947-1955), as quoted in Woman as Writer (1978) by Jeannette L. Webber and Joan Grumman, p. 38
The writer’s responsibility is to increase, develop our senses, expand our vision, heighten our awareness and enrich our articulateness.
Anaïs Nin1903–1977The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5, as quoted in Moving to Antarctica: An Anthology of Women’s Writing (1975) by Margaret Kaminski
- Responsibility
As far as I am concerned now, I have no enemies in the press whatsoever.
Richard Nixon1913–1994
- Journalism
Prose — it might be speculated — is discourse; poetry ellipsis.
Joyce Carol Oatesborn 1938“‘Soul at the White Heat’: The Romance of Emily Dickinson’s Poetry,” (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities (1988)
- Poetry
My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives.
Joyce Carol Oatesborn 1938Joyce Carol Oates interviews herself (2013)
Every word is a messenger. Some have wings; some are filled with fire; some are filled with death.
MOMary Oliver1935–2019Winter Hours (1999), “Sand Dabs, Six”
Minimum information given with maximum politeness.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis1929–1994Instructions to press secretary Pamela Turnure; Quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin
- Journalism
For a creative writer possession of the ‘truth’’ is less important than emotional sincerity.
George Orwell1903–1950
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.
George Orwell1903–1950“Why I Write,” Gangrel (Summer 1946)
Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.
George Orwell1903–1950“Benefit Of Clergy: Some Notes On Salvador Dalí,” Dickens, Dali & Others: Studies in Popular Culture (1944)
- Truth & Lies
When one reads any strongly individual piece of writing, one has the impression of seeing a face somewhere behind the page. It is not necessarily the actual face of the writer.
George Orwell1903–1950Charles Dickens (1939)
- Reading
Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism, as I understand it.
George Orwell1903–1950“Why I Write”, Gangrel (Summer 1946)
- Politics
I don’t care what is written about me, so long as it isn’t true.
Dorothy Parker1893–1967
- Comedy
And it is that word ‘hummy,’ my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.
Dorothy Parker1893–1967Her “Constant Reader” book review of The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne, in The New Yorker (October 20, 1928)
- Clever Jabs