Writing quotes
30.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside writing — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"I usually take a walk after breakfast, write for three hours, have lunch and read in the afternoon. Demons don’t like fresh air - they prefer it if you stay in bed with cold feet; for a person who is as chaotic as me, who struggles to be in control, it is an absolute necessity to follow these rules and routines. If I let myself go, nothing will get done."
"Write what should not be forgotten."
"It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive."
"You and you alone are the only person that can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice."
"I am stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a tabernacle to my God from them, far far away from the boundaries of Egypt. If you forgive me, I shall rejoice; if you are enraged with me, I shall bear it. See, I cast the die, and I write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference: let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study him."
"I'm not a tweeter or a Facebooker or a Grammer. I'm a real grump when it comes to technology. I'm like, come on, just write me a letter."
"Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say."
"If I upset you, don't stress. Never forget That God isn't finished with me yet. I feel His hand on my brain... When I write rhymes, I go blind and let the Lord do His thang."
"What you're trying to do when you write is to crowd the reader out of his own space and occupy it with yours, in a good cause. You're trying to take over his sensibility and deliver an experience that moves from mere information."
"Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page."
"Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try."
"I get out my work and have a show for myself before I have it publicly. I make up my own mind about it-how good or bad or indifferent it is. After that, the critics can write what they please. I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free."
"There are no mistakes or accidents. The present is malleable. Influence the odds. Free will is your pen, write your life."
"I can only speak for myself. But what I write and how I write is done in order to save my own life. And I mean that literally. For me literature is a way of knowing that I am not hallucinating, that whatever I feel/know is."
"It's easier to find a new audience than to write a new speech."
"You don't have to think very hard to realize that our dread of both relationships and loneliness ... has to do with angst about death, the recognition that I'm going to die, and die very much alone, and the rest of the world is going to go merrily on without me."
"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."
"The artist is always engaged in writing a detailed history of the future because he is the only person aware of the nature of the present."
"Places are extremely important when writing a long story because place shapes a character."
"I still love sparkles and grocery shopping and really old cats that are only nice to you half the time. I still love writing in my journal and wearing dresses all the time and staring at chandeliers."
