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Quotes

'Modesty is a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.'

— Miguel de Cervantes

'For those who can do it and who keep their nerve, writing for a living still beats most real, grown-up jobs hands down.'

— Terence Blacker

'Writing is a strange synthesis between the two parts of your mind: the analytical side and the side that knows nothing at all, and you have to allow the dreaming side free rein.'

— Rose Tremain

'One of the ridiculous aspects of being a poet is the huge gulf between how seriously we take ourselves and how generally we are ignored by everybody else.'

— Billy Collins

'By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.'

— Roald Dahl

‘I cannot find any patience for those people who believe that you start writing when you sit down at your desk and pick up your pen and finish writing when you put down your pen again; a writer is always writing, seeing everything through a thin mist of words, fitting swift little descriptions to everything he sees, always noticing.'

— Shirley Jackson

'The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof lie detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.'

— Ernest Hemingway

'Writing is a strange synthesis between the two parts of your mind: the analytical side and the side that knows nothing at all, and you have to allow the dreaming side free rein.'

— Rose Tremain

'What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you're a poet. But there isn't one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn't any formula for it.'

— Erica Jong

'There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté."'

— Margaret Atwood

'A writer who isn't writing isn't really alive.'

— Robin McKinley

'What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you're a poet. But there isn't one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn't any formula for it.'

— Erica Jong

'People say, "What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?" I say, they don't really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they're gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.'

— R L Stine

'All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people.'

— Nina Bawden

'I know I am finished with a book when I never want to see it again. And if you have worked at it long enough to hate the sight of it, I promise you will come to love it again some sweet day. That is when you will know you did a writer's work.'

— Robert Benson

'The more you read, the more you write, and the more you free yourself to do so, the better writer you will become.

— Adrienne Posey

'Nothing annoys a writer who doesn't write as much as being asked what he's writing.'

— Javier Cercas

'Write what you know. Learn what you don't.'

— Lidia Longorio

'There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté."'

— Margaret Atwood

'The most crucial thing is to learn the craft: how to string sentences together, how to make your dialogue sound like real people, how to properly pace a story, how to develop interesting characters.'

— Stephen Coonts

'Writers must fortify themselves with pride and egotism as best they can. The process is analogous to using sandbags and loose timbers to protect a house against flood. Writers are vulnerable creatures like anyone else. For what do they have in reality? Not sandbags, not timbers. Just a flimsy reputation and a name.'

— Brian Aldiss

'The most helpful quality a writer can cultivate is self-confidence - arrogance, if you can manage it. You write to impose yourself on the world, and you have to believe in your own ability when the world shows no sign of agreeing with you.'

— Hilary Mantel

'I don't choose my characters, rather, they come to me. Books choose their authors, at least that's what I believe.'

— Suzy Davies

'The one thing you learn is that nobody knows what will sell.'

— Jack Higgins

'Writing after many years becomes a place you can hide. Because you acquire a certain amount of craft, it allows you to do something while not revealing yourself.'

— Anne Carson

'An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.'

— Irwin Shaw

'Always thought being a writer would be one of the most useless things you could be in a zombie apocalypse, but it turns out arts and culture and storytelling is what helps us get through. Along with science, doctors, nurses, delivery people, farm workers and supermarket cashiers.'

— Lauren Beukes

‘Words may, through the devotion, the skill, the passion, and the luck of writers prove to be the most powerful thing in the world.'

— William Golding

'Our lives are spent plopped on the gluteal upholstery for eight hours a day with only imaginary friends for company, spinning lies, marinating in envy, and wondering when the Pulitzer committee is going to twig to our brilliance.'

— Sarah Bird

'It never occurred to me to write something people want to read.'

— Hanya Yanagihara

'Half the people I know want to be writers.

Why do you say want? If you're already doing it, then it's not about the future. It already exists in the present.

— Paul Auster

'The more you read, the more you write, and the more you free yourself to do so, the better writer you will become.'

— Adrienne Posey

'The biggest mistake you can make as an author is to think while writing "What does the reader wants to hear"? Because unique worlds & characters are built inside an individual mind. And also your readers do not know what they want to read until they read it.'

— Laura Chouette

‘Poetry might seem like an inconsequential side-casualty in a larger, noisier war, but in fact it is central to the story of ownership of ideas and expressions.'

— Sam Riviere

'All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people.'

— Nina Bawden

'Sometimes people dismiss SF and fantasy for being escapist...however, it is anything but. SF comes from its respective authors' societies, a reflection of the world's present, its history and its future. That world used to be overwhelmingly American, but it isn't anymore, and needn't be.'

— Lavie Tidhar

'Some day people will put faith in poets, who saw things centuries ago in perfect clarity.'

— E.B. White

‘It's not my job to populate my books with characters that other people find relatable. It's my job to write about whatever comes into my head. If you don't want to read novels about writers, or women, or Irish people, don't read my novels. I won't mind.'

— Sinéad Gleeson

‘First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.'

— Octavia Butler

'It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.'

— W. H. Auden
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