Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about writing

377 quotes from 206 people

Most readBy personPage 23 of 26

All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.
J. R. R. Tolkien1892–1973On Fairy-Stories (1939)
- Theology
The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910Sevastopol in May (1855), Ch. 16
- Truth & Lies
Anon is my favorite literary character.
P. L. Travers1899–1996The Paris Review interview (1982)
I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain1835–1910
There are laws to protect the freedom of the press’s speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press.
Mark Twain1835–1910License of the Press (1873).
- Journalism
Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
Mark Twain1835–1910Said to portrait painter Samuel Johnson Woolf, cited in Here am I (1941), Samuel Johnson Woolf
- Truth & Lies
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter⁠—‘tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
Mark Twain1835–1910Letter to George Bainton, 15 October 1888, solicited for and printed in George Bainton, The Art of Authorship: Literary Reminiscences, Methods of Work, and Advice to Young Beginners (1890), pp. 87–88.
Biographies are but clothes and buttons of the man — the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
Mark Twain1835–1910Mark Twain’s Autobiography (1924), Vol. I, p. 2
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
Mark Twain1835–1910Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), NoticeIn context
- Comedy
You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.
Mark Twain1835–1910Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Chapter IIn context
- Truth & Lies
When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop⁠—that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.
Mark Twain1835–1910The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), ConclusionIn context
- Marriage
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.
?UnattributedOften credited to Cicero
This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.
?UnattributedOften credited to Dorothy Parker
- Reading
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.
John Updike1932–2009Accepting Edward MacDowell Medal, New York Times (26 August 1981)
The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion.
John Updike1932–2009Introduction to The Best American Short Stories of 1984 (1984)
- Religion