On Writing

Quotations on Writing and Writers.

24 quotations — 10 Funny, 14 Serious.

Here's page 1 of 2.

  1. I love deadlines.
    I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
    Douglas Adams 1.
  2. Writing is easy.
    You only need to stare at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds.
    Douglas Adams 2.
  3. I find fault with only three things in this story of yours: the beginning, the middle, and the end.
    George Bernard Shaw 3.
  4. Writing well means never having to say “I guess you had to be there.”.
    Jef Mallett 4.
  5. I love being a writer.
    What I can't stand is the paperwork.
    Peter de Vries 5.
  6. I write when I'm inspired.
    And I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning.
    Peter de Vries 6.
  7. Some editors are failed writers.
    But so are most writers.
    T. S. Eliot 7.
  8. The difference between fiction and reality?
    Fiction has to make sense.
    Tom Clancy 8.
  9. There are three rules for writing a novel.
    Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
    W. Somerset Maugham 9.
  10. I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.
    Winston Churchill 10.
  12. Those who write clearly have readers.
    Those who write obscurely have commentators.
    Albert Camus 11.
  13. Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.
    Benjamin Franklin 12.
  14. I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
    Blaise Pascal 13.
  15. You know that I write slowly.
    This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in as few words as possible.
    And writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.
    Carl Friedrich Gauss 14.
  16. The best writing is rewriting.
    E. B. White 15.
  17. For a long time now, I have tried simply to write the best I can.
    Sometimes, I have good luck and write better than I can.
    Ernest Hemingway 16.
  18. Write something!
    Even if it's just a suicide note.
    Gore Vidal 17.
  19. Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
    Isaac Asimov 18.
  20. It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write.
    But it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't.
    Josh Olson 19.
  21. Substitute ‘damn’, every time you're inclined to write ‘very’.
    Your editor will delete it, and the writing will be just as it should be.
    [Advice for writers.]
    Mark Twain 20.
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