Writing Quotes of the Day

“It is not enough merely to love literature, if one wishes to spend one's life as a writer. It is a dangerous undertaking on the most primitive level. For, it seems to me, the act of writing with serious intent involves enormous personal risk. It entails the ongoing courage for self-discovery. It means one will walk forever on the tightrope, with each new step presenting the possibility of learning a truth about oneself that is too terrible to bear.”—Harlan Ellison

“If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing.”—Kingsley Amis

“In good writing, words become one with things.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.”—F. Scott Fitzgerald

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.”—Robert Frost

“Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.”—Paul Theroux

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”—T. S. Eliot

“Writing, I explained, was mainly an attempt to out-argue one's past; to present events in such a light that battles lost in life were either won on paper or held to a draw.”—Jules Feifer

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”—E. M. Forster

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.”—Mark Twain