"I actually write my own music whenever I have a chance. I play guitar and sing."
Read quote
6 likes
Writing quotes
Writing
30.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Writing
Browse quotes that often appear alongside writing — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Writing quotes (page 152 of 1537)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"A lot of times students will come up to me and say, "Well, I can't write because I don't know what I think about such-and-such." And I say, "That's why you have to write." You don't wait until you know, because then who cares - it's static."
Read quote
6 likes
"The actual materials are important. A book at the nightstand is important - a light you can get at - or a flashlight as Kerouac had a brakeman's latern."
Read quote
6 likes
"Recipe writers hate to write about heat. They despise it. Because there aren't proper words for communicating what should be done with it."
Read quote
6 likes
"I feel like for me the lyric writing really comes from just what's going on in my heart and that's what consumes me; think a lot of our heart is relationships. Not just with boyfriend or girlfriend but all your relationships in your life with other people and our interactions with other humans."
Read quote
6 likes
"Writing music is my therapy. It’s very purifying!"
Read quote
6 likes
"I write by myself initially. That's the way I've always written, just working on pure thought by myself. Then I bring it to the table with whoever I'm collaborating with."
Read quote
6 likes
"It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written."
Read quote
6 likes
"Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature."
Read quote
6 likes
"Most new writers think it's easy to write for children, but it's not. You have to get in a beginning, middle and end, tell a great story, write well, not be condescending-all in a few pages."
Read quote
6 likes
"Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing."
Read quote
6 likes
"One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around."
Read quote
6 likes
"I used to tell my writing students that they must write the books they wished they could come upon - because then the books they hungered and thirsted for would exist."
Read quote
6 likes
"I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all it is cracked up to be. But writing is."
Read quote
6 likes
"There are moments when I am writing when I think that if other people knew how I felt right now, they’d burn me at the stake for feeling so good, so full, so much intense pleasure."
Read quote
6 likes
"Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises."
Read quote
6 likes
"I don't know where to start," one [writing student] will wail. Start with your childhood, I tell them. Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can. Flannery O' Connor said that anyone who has survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life. Maybe your childhood was grim and horrible, but grim and horrible is Okay if it is well done. Don't worry about doing it well yet, though. Just get it down."
Read quote
6 likes
"Writing takes a combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief that something is beautiful because it is right."
Read quote
6 likes
"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship"
Read quote
6 likes
"Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly."
Read quote
6 likes