Quotes about writing
377 quotes from 206 people
Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), vol. 2, trans. R. J. Hollingdale in Essays and Aphorisms (1970)In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.
John Steinbeck1902–1968Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969), entry of 29 January 1951Prose — 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)Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Letter to a Young Clergyman (January 9, 1720)All that is not prose is verse; and all that is not verse is prose.
Molière1622–1673Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670), Act II, sc. ivA man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Letter (6 December 1924); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos BakerShakespeare led a life of allegory: his works are the comments on it.
John Keats1795–1821To George and Georgiana Keats (14 February – 3 May 1819)A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.
Marianne Moore1887–1972Interview in Writers at Work, Second Series, ed. George Plimpton (1963)I’ve made up stuff that’s turned out to be real, that’s the spooky part.
Tom Clancy1947–2013The New York Times (27 July 1986)Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.
Robert Frost1874–1963The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)There is one story and one story only
That will prove worth your telling
Robert Graves1895–1985“To Juan at the Winter Solstice” from Poems 1938-1945 (1946)I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.
Vladimir Nabokov1899–1977Strong Opinions (1973), ForewordAll sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.
Karen Blixen1885–1962Interview with Bent Mohn in The New York Times Book Review (3 November 1957)If God could tell the story of the Universe, the Universe would become fictitious.
E. M. Forster1879–1970Aspects of the Novel (1927), Chapter Three: PeopleThe printing press is the greatest weapon in the armory of the modern commander…
T. E. Lawrence1888–1935The Evolution of A Revolt (1920)