Writers' Quotes?

I just happened to come across a website full of quotes and I thought maybe you could be just as inspired as I was when I read them.

 

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.  ~Anaïs Nin

What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.  ~Logan Pearsall Smith, "All Trivia," Afterthoughts, 1931 

 

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.  ~Karl Kraus 

 

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.  ~Anton Chekhov

 

If I'm trying to sleep, the ideas won't stop.  If I'm trying to write, there appears a barren nothingness.  ~Carrie Latet

 

It's not plagiarism - I'm recycling words, as any good environmentally conscious writer would do.  ~Uniek Swain

 

An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.  ~Gustave Flaubert

 

Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies.  ~Emme Woodhull-Bäche

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.  ~Mark Twain

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.  ~Toni Morrison

 

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood.  I'd type a little faster.  ~Isaac Asimov

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.  ~Karl Kraus

Writer's block is a disease for which there is no cure, only respite.  ~Laurie Wordholt

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window.  ~Burton Rascoe 

 

To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all.  ~Lord Byron 

 

Write your first draft with your heart.  Re-write with your head.  ~From the movie Finding Forrester

It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write.  ~Sinclair Lewis

 

 What things there are to write, if one could only write them!  My mind is full of gleaming thought; gay moods and mysterious, moth-like meditations hover in my imagination, fanning their painted wings.  But always the rarest, those streaked with azure and the deepest crimson, flutter away beyond my reach.  ~Logan Pearsall Smith 

 

A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.  ~Jean Luc Godard

 

Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life.  ~James Norman Hall

 

Sleep on your writing; take a walk over it; scrutinize it of a morning; review it of an afternoon; digest it after a meal; let it sleep in your drawer a twelvemonth; never venture a whisper about it to your friend, if he be an author especially.  ~A. Bronson Alcott 

 

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.  ~Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, 1947

 Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer.  But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.  ~Colette, Casual Chance, 1964

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.  ~Jules Renard, Journal, 10 April 1895

The good writers touch life often.  The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her.  The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.  ~Ray Bradbury

Being an author is having angels whisper in your ear - and devils, too.  ~Graycie Harmon
 

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.  ~André Gide, Journals, 1894

 

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.  ~Chateaubriand, Le Génie du Christianisme, 1802

 

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.  One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.  ~George Orwell, "Why I Write," 1947  (Thanks, Jennifer)

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.  ~Hart Crane

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.  ~G.K. Chesterton

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof s**t detector.  This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.  ~Ernest Hemingway, interview in Paris Review, Spring 1958

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.  ~Samuel Johnson

The best style is the style you don't notice.  ~Somerset Maugham

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes.  ~William Makepeace Thackeray

                     
 Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.  ~Goethe   

 

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.  ~Agatha Christie

 

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.  ~Sylvia Plath

Author's Note

I think my favorite one is the last quote :D

Reviews

[Tate Morgan]

OH so beautiful My favorite is of course Twain
Hurrah for life and wisdom

[Sarah J. Kelleher]

I have two definite favorites: What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window. ~Burton Rascoe
And...: And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

[ashley]

This is great!

[azlamalo]

The first one is awesome! Thnx for sharing it

[Lucy Joan]

@Matthewtuckey--
The purpose of this whole thing wasn't to get feedback. It was for personal read, meant to be inspirational. FYI, none of this work is mine.

"I would have thought other parts of the website would be more accessible for most of the people using it."

Excuse me? I named this post for a reason. "Writers' Quotes"
What do you think the access was for? Plagiarism?

[Alya Usman]

Nice quotes. Yeah, you're right, the last one is quite good. =)

[Cassandra D.]

THese are very good quotes.
"A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. ~G.K. Chesterton"
I loved that quote!!!

[Matthewtuckey]

You've put the Karl Kraus line up twice. I'm not sure why you put this up for review though- you've referenced, but what are you hoping to gain from people's feedback if very little of the writing is your own? I would have thought other parts of the website would be more accessible for most of the people using it.

[Jemma]

A few of these I completely agree with.
If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~Toni Morrison i like that one just cause it is how I write.
And
And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath
Just because I love Sylvia Plath :)

[Wolfe Greytome]

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." - Stephen King