I am the freest author in the world.
J. K. RowlingBecoming a writer is not a ‚career decision‘ like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don’t choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you’re not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days.
Paul AusterThoughts are the shadows of our feelings – always darker, emptier and simpler.
Friedrich NietzscheIn many ways, I’ve been writing personal stories all my life.
Alice MunroI liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry – writing at writing.
Maya AngelouYou can stroke people with words.
F. Scott FitzgeraldI put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.
Henry David ThoreauWe often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.
Friedrich NietzscheLove is the answer to everything. It’s the only reason to do anything. If you don’t write stories you love, you’ll never make it. If you don’t write stories that other people love, you’ll never make it.
Ray BradburyIt is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.
Virginia WoolfAs far as I’m concerned, I’m a writer who’s writing books, and therefore, I don’t want to die. You’d miss the end of the book wouldn’t you? You can’t die with an unfinished book.
Terry PratchettI could speak three languages when I was six, and when I went to school, I only liked to read and sketch. At five, I could write and everything.
Karl LagerfeldBrevity is the soul of wit.
William ShakespeareIt would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.
Anthony BourdainI don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘
Maya AngelouIt usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.
Steven WrightMoney is an unavoidable consequence, but it isn’t the reason I write; if it was, I wouldn’t have written any of the YA books, because advances in that field are small compared to what I’d got now for an ‚adult‘ DW.
Terry PratchettYou can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.
Ernest HemingwayA bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
Jack LondonInnovation is a good thing. The human condition – put aside bioterrorism and a few footnotes – is improving because of innovation.
Bill GatesI feel like I was writing as I was learning to talk. Writing was always a go-to form of communication. And I knew I could sing from being in tune with the radio.
Frank OceanWe like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.
Stephen KingFor a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
Ernest HemingwayIt seems almost backwards to me that my music seems the more emotional outlet, and the art stuff seems more about ideas.
David ByrnePeople want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a jar on my desk.
Stephen KingYou cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.
Stephen KingHe who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.
Lao TzuLove. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.
Ray BradburyJane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.
J. K. RowlingTo take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That’s what Norman Mailer did. That’s what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that’s what I do – that’s what I mean to do.
Maya AngelouIt’s not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate.
Paulo CoelhoI like to have strong opinions with nothing to back them up with besides my primal sincerity. I like sincerity. I lack sincerity.
Kurt CobainWhat the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope… It is not a reflection of all religious people.
Lady GagaIf all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
SocratesNaturally, my stories are about women – I’m a woman. I don’t know what the term is for men who write mostly about men. I’m not always sure what is meant by ‚feminist.‘ In the beginning, I used to say, ‚Well, of course I’m a feminist.‘ But if it means that I follow a kind of feminist theory, or know anything about it, then I’m not.
Alice MunroHe who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.
Albert CamusI have my favorite cat, who is my paperweight, on my desk while I am writing.
Ray BradburySome things get written more quickly than others, but I can’t really measure degrees of difficulty.
Paul AusterI’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.
J. K. RowlingMy advice is this. For Christ’s sake, don’t write a book that is suitable for a kid of 12 years old, because the kids who read who are 12 years old are reading books for adults. I read all of the James Bond books when I was about 11, which was approximately the right time to read James Bond books.
Terry PratchettIt’s funny because I’ve made a living off of words, but words get in the way of what you really want to say.
Kanye WestWhat’s important for my daughter to know is that… if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.
Kamala HarrisEloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
Blaise PascalHow vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Henry David ThoreauI know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, ‚No. No, I’m finished. Bye.‘ And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won’t do that.
Maya AngelouI was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do ever – was write novels.
J. K. RowlingFor a dinner date, I eat light all day to save room, then I go all in: I choose this meal and this order, and I choose you, the person across from me, to share it with. There’s a beautiful intimacy in a meal like that.
Anthony BourdainThe most deeply personal of my works are the non-fiction works, the autobiographical works, because there, I’m talking about myself very directly.
Paul AusterAll of my writing is God-given.
Ray BradburyThe good old days, when each idea had an owner, are gone forever.
Paulo CoelhoAlmost any biographer, if he respects facts, can give us much more than another fact to add to our collection. He can give us the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders.
Virginia WoolfPoetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamI write all of my own speeches.
Greta ThunbergI work all day, do research, sketch my ideas, prepare for performances.
Lady GagaThere is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.
Terry PratchettThe soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
Marcus AureliusWriting’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.
Dolly PartonI always have to be writing.
Taylor SwiftWhen everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.
Charles BukowskiThe ideas associated with the problems of the development of science, as far as I can see by looking around me, are not of the kind that everyone appreciates.
Richard P. Feynman