Writers’ Quotes on Writing

« Writers’ Quotes on Writing – Dozen Four | BLOG HOME | Writers’ Quotes on Writing – Dozen Number Six »

Writers’ Quotes on Writing – A Fifth Dozen

By Deb Gallardo

If my math is correct, this post brings you 12 more great writers’ quotes on writing, in my 7-part series. Take advantage of Stumbling, Digging and Tweeting this link to your friends: (http://www.debgallardo.com/virtuoso/1067/writers-quotes-on-writing-a-fifth-dozen/) and come back tomorrow for more writers bringing you inspiration, laughter and tears over the writing life.

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. ~ Franklin Jones

The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its supreme purpose through him. ~ Carl Jung

I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. ~ Stephen King

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘Not at this address’. Just keep looking for the right address. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Use your imagination. Trust me, your lives are not interesting. Don’t write them down. ~ W. B. Kinsella

Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind. ~ Rudyard Kipling

The trouble with science fiction is that you can write about everything: time, space, all the future, all the past, all of the universe, any kind of creature imaginable. That’s too big. It provides no focus for the artist. An artist needs, in order to function, some narrowing of focus. Usually, in the history of art, the narrower the focus in which the artist is forced to work, the greater the art. ~ Philip Klass

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Writing is a fairly lonely business unless you invite peopl in to watch you do it, which is often distracting and then have to ask them to leave. ~ Marc Lawrence

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer… ~ Stephen Leigh

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write. ~ Somerset Maugham