Writing quotes
Welcome to our collection of quotes on the topic of Writing. Writing is a powerful form of self-expression that has the ability to captivate, inspire, and connect people from all walks of life. Whether you are a seasoned author, a budding writer, or simply someone who appreciates the beauty of words, you'll find something to resonate with in this collection.
Writing allows us to delve into the depths of our thoughts, emotions, and experiences, transforming them into a tangible and relatable form. It is a tool that transcends time and space, offering us glimpses into different cultures, perspectives, and ideas. From the works of literary giants to the musings of everyday individuals, writing has the power to shape our understanding of the world.
Within this compilation, you'll find a wealth of wisdom, insight, and inspiration from renowned authors, poets, journalists, and more who have shared their thoughts on the art of writing. Explore the quotes that celebrate the beauty of language, the struggle of finding the right words, the thrill of crafting a story, and the catharsis that comes with expressing oneself through writing.
So, whether you're seeking motivation to pen your own masterpiece or simply in need of some words to ponder, we invite you to immerse yourself in the world of Writing through this collection of carefully curated quotes.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsThe mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI rarely write in my own voice except in book reviews and memoirs; otherwise, I am writing in mediated voices, modulated in terms of the characters whom the voices express.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsI have occasionally had the exquisite thrill of putting my finger on a little capsule of truth, and heard it give the faint squeak of mortality under my pressure.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsThe main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. Because I have the greatest respect for the reader, and if he's going to the trouble of reading what I've written -- I'm a slow reader myself and I guess most people are -- why, the least I can do is make it as easy as possible for him to find out what I'm trying to say, trying to get at. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorWriting is a solitary occupation, and one of its hazards is loneliness. But an advantage of loneliness is privacy, autonomy and freedom.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsOf course, it may be that the arts of writing and photography are antithetical. The hope and aim of a word-handler is that he maycommunicate a thought or an impression to his reader without the reader's realizing that he has been dragged through a series of hazardous or grotesque syntactical situations. In photography the goal seems to be to prove beyond a doubt that the cameraman, in his great moment of creation, was either hanging by his heels from the rafters or was wedged under the floor with his lens in a knothole.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorMy writing is full of lives I might have led.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsAll we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorWhen I complete a novel I set it aside, and begin work on short stories, and eventually another long work. When I complete that novel I return to the earlier novel and rewrite much of it. In the meantime the second novel lies in a desk drawer.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsShocking writing is like murder: the questions the jury must decide are the questions of motive and intent.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorAll that matters in life is forging deep ties of love and family and friends. Writing and reading come later.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsI discovered a long time ago that writing of the small things of the day, the trivial matters of the heart, the inconsequential but near things of this living, was the only kind of creative work which I could accomplish with any sincerity or grace. As a reporter, I was a flop, because I always came back laden not with facts about the case, but with a mind full of the little difficulties and amusements I had encountered in my travels.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsI have always felt that the first duty of a writer was to ascend - to make flights, carrying others along if you can manage it. To do this takes courage, even a certain conceit.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI've always been interested in writing about people, including young children who are not able to speak for themselves. As in my novel 'Black Water,' I provide a voice for someone who has died and can't speak for herself.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsSometimes a writer, like an acrobat, must try a trick that is too much for him.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI really love to set things in places that are real to me.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsIn the nature of things, a person engaged in the flimsy business of expressing himself on paper is dependent on the large general privilege of being heard. Any intimation that this privilege may be revoked throws a writer into panic.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorI never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsA writer should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorThe domestic lives we live - which may be accidental, or not entirely of our making - help to make possible our writing lives; our imaginations are freed, or stimulated, by the very prospect of companionship, quiet, a predictable and consoling routine.
E. B. White
— Versatile Writer & Author of Beloved ClassicsAlthough there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorYou are writing for your contemporaries - not for Posterity. If you are lucky, your contemporaries will become Posterity.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorThe novel is the affliction for which only the novel is the cure.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorMy writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorIt's hard to say how we compare to other people. We each inhabit our own personalities. I have often felt that I'm a very neutral being and that I have almost no personality. I'm drawn to writing partly because I'm fascinated by the mimetic process.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorWhen one crosses over from an activity, or the verb, of writing or doing, and becomes a noun, like "a writer" I think that is an act of supreme self-consciousness that I've never, in effect, made. I write, but I don't like to think of myself as a writer. I think it's somewhat self-aggrandizing and pretentious. Now, I am a teacher.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorBy the way of connecting with subject, with theme, I was able to find a kind of lifeline. Writing's like a lifeline. You have to get the right way in. Otherwise the material just lies there, and you can't do anything with it.
Joyce Carol Oates
— AuthorDetroit, my 'great' subject, made me the person I am, consequently the writer I am - for better or worse.