Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent. James Baldwin
Most writers, in my opinion, are dysfunctional derelicts. Mike Tyson
I like the hip writers: Fitzgerald, the guy who committed suicide, Hemingway, all those guys. Some of them were alcoholics and drug addicts but they had fun. They were real people. They formed the culture of American literature. Hemingway admired Tolstoy, Tolstoy admired Pushkin, and Mailer admired Hemingway. It all flows down. The greats are all connected. One day I’m gonna write a book myself. The first chapter will be about what a rough deal my momma got. She believed in you guys and your society. Mike Tyson
Writer’s block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol. Steve Martin
When you’re writing, it’s terrible. It’s the loneliest thing in the world. Eric Sykes, The Parkinson Show
The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself. Albert Camus
Here in what is now known as Iraq lies what is commonly regarded by historians and archaeologists as the cradle of civilisation. Between 3,500 and 1,900 B.C. the fertile area between the Tigras and Euphrates rivers was the home of the Sumerian people. The Sumerians also invented the first known writing system by using uniform script on clay tablets. In the nineteenth century archaeologists exploring the ancient ruins of Nineva discovered 22,000 of these clay tablets. When they were later translated the texts described many stories similar to those found in the Judean-Christian Bible. Ancient Aliens s1e3: The Mission, History 2009
I am my own secretary; I dictate, I compose, I copy all myself. The Venerable Bede
In 1851 in what is now known as Iraq archaeologist and explorer Sir Austen Henry Layard discovered a library with 22,000 tablets containing what we know to be the earliest writings of man. The writings date back to over 6,000 years ago when the region was known as Mesopotamia, Sumer and Babylon. Amongst these vast writings is a story which mirrors the Book of Genesis. It contains the story of a great flood ... One of these scrolls includes a star map of what appears to be a sun and planets ... Includes a tenth planet in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter ... They described the Anunnaki as a reptilian race of gods which came to the Earth from fiery ships from their home planet of Nibiru ... The story of reptilian gods from the heavens creating man is not at all uncommon. It in fact can be found in almost every region of our planet. Your World is Changing
The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer. Friedrich Nietzsche
Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity. Thomas Gray, letter to Horace Walpole 25th February 1768
The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You’re there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see – every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties. Graham Greene
The dreaded essential opening sentences. Graham Greene, In Search of a Character, 1961
The beastly adverb – far more damaging to a writer than an adjective. Graham Greene, Ways of Escape, 1980
What’s writing? A way to escape, like travelling to a war, or to see the Mau Mau. Escaping what? Boredom. Death. Graham Greene, interview John Mortimer, Sunday Times 16th March 1980
In composing as a general rule run your pen through every word you have ever written; you have no idea what vigour it will give your style. Sydney Smith
The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty. John Steinbeck
The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true. John Steinbeck, The New York Times 2 June 1969
When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all I can permit myself to contemplate. John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things – childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves – that go on slipping, like sand, through our fingers. Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
One of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions. Salman Rushdie, Independent on Sunday 10th September 1995
A famous writer who wants to continue writing has to be constantly defending himself against fame. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Writers at Work
Writing had developed in Egypt around 5,000 years ago. Andrew Marr’s History of the World I, BBC 2012
Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why. James Joyce
When men write for profit, they are not every delicate. Horace Walpole
Writing doesn’t come easy to me. It gets more and more difficult. Elizabeth David, cookery writer
You’re not really qualified to write about things unless you see them from the start. I mean, milk the cows, see the wheat being ground. Elizabeth David
A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. Vladimir Nabokov
All my stories are webs of style and none seems at first blush to contain much kinetic matter. For me style is matter. Vladimir Nabokov
Caress the detail, the divine detail. Vladimir Nabokov
A writer must refuse, therefore, to allow himself to be transformed into an institution. Jean-Paul Sartre, refusing Nobel Prize 22nd October 1964
Write what should not be forgotten. Isabel Allende
I love to write to the moment. Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, 1747-8
But those who cannot write and those who can,
All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribbled, to a man. Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace, 1737
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
’Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense. Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives, some rock’s vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow. ibid.
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain. John Keats, 1818
I have come to this resolution – never to write for the sake of writing, or making a poem, but from running over with any little knowledge or experience which many years of reflection may perhaps give me – otherwise I shall be dumb. John Keats
Fine writing is next to fine doing the top thing in the world. John Keats
All clean and comfortable I sit down to write. John Keats
All the rest is mere fine writing. Paul Verlaine, Art Poetique
My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel – it is, before all, to make you see. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim