Writing Quotes of the Day

“The most solid advice . . . for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell, and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”—William Saroyan
“Write it, even if you think it's terrible. Don't prevent yourself from jotting down a word, phrase, or paragraph just because it "isn't quite right" or "it won't work." Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but it's better to write it down, you can always edit later. And you don't want to stop yourself before you even get started! The point isn't to use everything you write. You can't be expected to pop out perfect prose your first time out! Write now, edit later.”—Cristine Grace

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”—Saul Bellow

“In the beginning you may be writing around what you want to say instead of getting to the core. Keep writing. The route may be circuitous but after you zero in on what you truly want to say, you'll see that during all those false starts and detoured storylines, you weren't wasting time, as you feared. You were developing as a writer, developing a discerning eye and ear, finding your own voice, learning to respect self-imposed deadlines.”—Madeleine Costigan

“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.”—Stella Adler

“How can I write a war novel if I've never been in a war? In fiction, what counts is not expertise at all, but the illusion of expertise. All art is illusion, accomplished with stage effects that seem more real than reality. With enough accurate detail to stay ahead of the reader, the fiction writer can tackle any subject.”—Arthur Plotnik

“There is no perfect time to write. There is only now.”—Barbara Kingsolver

“I write at eighty-five for the same reasons that impelled me to write at forty-five; I was born with a passionate desire to communicate, to organize experience, to tell tales that dramatize the adventures which readers might have had. I have been that ancient man who sat by the campfire at night and regaled the hunters with imaginative recitations about their prowess. The job of an apple tree is to bear apples. The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation.”—James Michner

"Ring the bells that can still ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”—Leonard Cohen

"I honestly think I would rather be a failure at something I love than to be a success at something I hate.”—George Burns