Thursday Thirteen: Favorite Quotes on Writing

THIRTEEN FAVORITE QUOTES ON WRITING

I always find it interesting to read what some of the greats have to say about their craft.  While recently looking up a specific quote on writing, I found many enlightening quotes that resonated with me; some I had read before, others were new to me.  I’m sharing them here in the hope that one or two will do something for you. 

1.  Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov

2.  A critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

3.  Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum. ~Graycie Harmon

4.  Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~Joseph Heller

5.  When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. ~Enrique Jardiel Poncela

6.  Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. The chasm is never completely bridged. We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

7.  The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin

8.  A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. ~Charles Peguy

9.  And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

10. What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers. ~Logan Pearsall Smith, “All Trivia,” Afterthoughts, 1931

11. Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

12. The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it. ~Ernest Hemingway, interview in Paris Review, Spring 1958

13. I don’t like to write, but I love to have written.  ~Michael Kanin

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1.  Heather

2.  Alice Audrey

3.  Jacquie Rogers

4.  Shelley Munro

5.  Ms. Menozzi

6.  Adelle Laudan

7.  Stephanie Adkins

8.  Inez Kelley

9.  Jennifer McKenzie

10. Nina Pierce

11. Paige Tyler

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

~ Pamela

Tags: quotes, Writing