It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.
Paulo CoelhoYou want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a filmmaker? Start shooting stuff on your phone right now.
Matthew McConaugheyI don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.
Wayne DyerI said I was ‚The Greatest,‘ I never said I was the smartest!
Muhammad AliEverybody that I was in school with had an uncle or father in the law, and I started to realize that I was going to end up writing briefs for about ten years for these fellows who I thought I was smarter than. And I was kind of losing my feeling for that.
John WayneI’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.
Lady GagaEven if you have nothing to write, write and say so.
Marcus Tullius CiceroI always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.
Wayne DyerWhen I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it’s light, and sometimes it gets very dark.
The WeekndThe influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.
Billy GrahamTrue ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.
Alexander PopeIt may be that the most striking thing about members of my literary generation in retrospect will be that we were allowed to say absolutely anything without fear of punishment.
Kurt VonnegutThe ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.
Robert FrostA guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.
Albert CamusWe forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Arthur SchopenhauerLike Frank Sinatra, I’m doing it my way.
Mr. TI love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.
RihannaI go to all these photo shoots, and each time I figure out something new about myself and what I want to wear.
Taylor SwiftI wrote an article on a new Porsche for ‚Automobile Magazine.‘ I knew the editor, and she asked me to write this article. So I’m more proud of that than anything.
Jerry SeinfeldWhere is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAs a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.
John KennedyI’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.
Jimmy CarterI have my favorite cat, who is my paperweight, on my desk while I am writing.
Ray BradburyIf I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.
Angelina JolieThere is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.
Dale CarnegieEvangelism is when the Gospel, which is good news, is preached or presented to all people.
Billy GrahamWriting is like anything else – the more you do it, the better you get at it, the easier it comes, and the less concerned you’ll be about what’s going to happen to it, where it’s going, what it sounds like, whether it’s right.
Wayne DyerA woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.
Virginia WoolfPeople think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It’s a story.
Billie EilishI had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.
Muhammad AliI have nothing to declare except my genius.
Oscar WildeI’m on the autism spectrum. I don’t usually follow social coding and so therefore I go my own way.
Greta ThunbergOnce I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it – it’s no longer my piece of writing.
David BowieYou need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.
Margaret AtwoodEach age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.
Ralph Waldo EmersonIf we go on your iPhone and go to the dictionary and look up ‚humble,‘ 80 per cent of the definition is negative. It’s a controlling word. It’s a way to control the masses and to control the sheep.
Kanye WestI’m not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me.
Tom BradyI don’t know if I officially proofread my father’s book, but I read it. I did get some conception of grammar in general from that.
Noam ChomskyIf you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‚You don’t know how to use the English language,‘ or ‚How could you make that argument?‘ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.
Ruth Bader GinsburgIf I could write directly on a typewriter or a computer, I would do it. But keyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page.
Paul AusterHundreds of people who’ve never written before send in ‚Dr. Who‘ scripts. They may have good ideas, but what they fail to realise is that writing for TV is incredibly complicated. They have no idea how difficult it is and what the financial commitment is.
Douglas AdamsThe herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.
Napoleon BonaparteWhenever I make music, it reflects where I’m at mentally.
Kendrick LamarAll of my music is honest.
The WeekndThe man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.
Oscar WildeI use a stream-of-consciousness approach; if you don’t censor yourself, you end up with what you’re most concerned about, but you haven’t filtered it through your conscious mind. Then you craft it.
David ByrneMy father… removed from Kentucky to… Indiana, in my eighth year… It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up… Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher… but that was all.
Abraham LincolnI ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.
Dolly PartonOne thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they’re just infested with lots of stuff.
Terry PratchettBeing acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.
Kendrick LamarMen are what their mothers made them.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe atmosphere of orthodoxy is always damaging to prose, and above all it is completely ruinous to the novel, the most anarchical of all forms of literature.
George OrwellI want people to understand they have to live their own lives the way they want to and not just do what we do.
Stephen CurryI remember very little about writing the first series of ‚Hitchhiker’s.‘ It’s almost as if someone else wrote it.
Douglas AdamsWho I am on stage is very, very different to who I am in real life.
Beyonce KnowlesI’ve had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn’t write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.
Robert KiyosakiI knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.
Lana Del Rey‚Nation‘ was one that I’d have killed myself if I hadn’t written it. It was absolutely important to me that I wrote it. It was good for my soul.
Terry PratchettWhen restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.
Mahatma GandhiI didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.
Mr. T