"Whatever you want to say, there is only one word to express it, only one verb to give it movement, only one adjective to qualify it."
Read quote
12 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 72 of 1537)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Writing sustains me. But wouldn’t it be better to say it sustains this kind of life? Which doesn't mean life is any better when I don’t write. On the contrary, it is far worse, wholly unbearable, and inevitably ends in madness. This is, of course, only on the assumption that I am a writer even when I don’t write - which is indeed the case; and a non-writing writer is, in fact, a monster courting insanity."
Read quote
12 likes
"Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long."
Read quote
12 likes
"Any asshole can write a tone-row. It takes a composer to write a tune."
Read quote
12 likes
"I started doing music when I was thirteen; I actually started writing my first rhymes."
Read quote
12 likes
"I wouldn't write anything autobiographical. If you've lived a life like Laurence of Arabia, it might be a consideration, but otherwise it's a little bit vain, it seems to me."
Read quote
12 likes
"What is an artist? He's a man who has antennae, who knows how to hook up to the currents which are in atmosphere, in the cosmos."
Read quote
12 likes
"The truly great writer does not want to write: he wants the world to be a place in which he can live the life of the imagination. The first quivering word he puts to paper is the word of the wounded angel: pain."
Read quote
12 likes
"If the poet can no longer speak for society, but only for himself, then we are at the last ditch."
Read quote
12 likes
"The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters."
Read quote
12 likes
"Every hour you spend writing is an hour you don't spend worrying about your writing."
Read quote
12 likes
"Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counselling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, 'How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?' and avoid 'How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?'"
Read quote
12 likes
"I can only write about personal stuff, about my point of view."
Read quote
12 likes
"I'd rather work on my radio show, which no one hears but I put about eight hours of programming and writing into it for those 30 people who do tune in."
Read quote
12 likes
"A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends."
Read quote
12 likes
"And my girl actin like a brat So when she call, I don't answer - I just write her back"
Read quote
12 likes
"I think novelists, when they write their books, end up having occasionally serving a purpose and playing roles that they never really fully either intended or even understood."
Read quote
12 likes
"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."
Read quote
12 likes
"If we learned to walk and talk the way we learn to read and write, everyone would limp and stutter."
Read quote
12 likes
"To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement."
Read quote
12 likes