“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

"If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented."
~ Stephen King

"You would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer, once you get to know them."
~ Anne Tyler

“Start before you're ready. Don't prepare, begin.”
~ Mel Robbins

“The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.”
~ Arthur Schopenhauer

"Your brain is wired to keep you safe, not successful. What if the only thing holding you back is your own mind?"
~ John Assaraf

"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."
~ C.S. Lewis

"The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine."
~ Success Minded

"I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes."
~ Philip Dusenberry

"As simple as it sounds, write the story that excites you most. Never write for what you think a mass audience will want to buy."
~ Ace Atkins

“Write as much as you can.
As fast as you can.
Finish your shit.
Hit your deadlines.
Try very hard not to suck.”
~ Chuck Wendig

“I tell people, Make a list of ten things you hate and tear them down in a short story or poem. Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them. When I wrote ‘Fahrenheit 451’ I hated book burners and I loved libraries. So there you are”
~ Ray Bradbury

“In an opening you need to focus on stakes, not outcomes. Give us a moment to understand what a character wants. And what they want will tell us about who they are. And once we see who someone is, we’ll start to give a damn about the rest of it.”
~ DongWon Song (Super Agent)

"The most beautiful stories always start with wreckage."
~ Jack London

"Writers are never fully satisfied with their writing. The ones who make it, though, are the ones who give themselves permission to write imperfectly, so that they can work with what they have."
~ A R Gillespie

"My life is a constant battle between wanting to correct grammar and wanting to have friends."
~ Moby

"Appeal to interest, not reason."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."
~ E L Doctorow

"Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days, nothing else matters."
~ Neil Gaiman

"To be alone is the fate of all great minds."
~ Arthur Schopenhauer

"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
~ Maya Angelou

"Procrastination is like a credit card; it's a lot of fun until you get the bill."
~ Joel Brown

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page"
~ Jodi Picoult

"When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else."
~ Zadie Smith

"The road to success is paved with obstacles. If you can't handle a little adversity, you'll never make it to the top."
~ Brett Erik

"You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write."
~ Annie Proulx

“It’s such a confidence trick, writing a novel. The main person you have to trick into confidence is yourself. This is hard to do alone.”
~ Zadie Smith

"Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life."
~ Lawrence Kasdan

“Success is never permanent, failure is never fatal.”
~ Winston Churchill

“Unless something is gonna make a sh*t ton of money, give it away for free.”
~ Tim Ferris

"Oftentimes an originator of new language forms is called 'pretentious' by jealous talents. But it ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it."
~ Jack Kerouac

"I write description in longhand because that’s hardest for me and you’re closer to the paper when you work by hand, but I use the typewriter for dialogue because people speak like a typewriter works."
~ Ernest Hemingway

"Make writing a regular part of your daily routine—even just a tiny amount per day—so that it feels more natural to write than not to."
~ Jennifer Egan

"Don't stop because you hit a block. Finish the page, even if you write nothing but your own name. The block will break if you don't give in to it. Remember, writing is a physical habit as well as whatever you want to think it is - Calling, avocation, talent, genius, art."
~ Isabell Holland

"Your ship cannot come in unless you have first sent ships out."
~ Sidney Bremer

"You put yourself in the position of Netflix where every eight weeks you’d better have another blockbuster. "
~ Dan Kennedy

"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

"If you don't separate yourself from distractions, your distractions will separate you from your goals."
~ Steve Harvey

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
~ Maya Angelou

"If you focus daily for a year on the discipline and actions needed to succeed, you will live the rest of your life in a way others only dream of."
~ John Assaraf

"All style is, is the awkwardness of a writer in stating a fact. If you have a way of your own, you are fortunate, but if you try to write like somebody else, you’ll have the awkwardness of the other writer as well as your own."
~ Ernest Hemingway

"It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up a familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it."
~ Anasis Nin

"When your story is ready for a rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt. Revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering your children, but it must be done."
~ Stephen King

"Instead of waiting for inspiration to start writing, start writing to find inspiration."
~ Robert Lee Brewer

"If you care about your writing, prioritize it and don’t treat it as a secret hobby or an afterthought."
~ Ethan Joella

"My block was due to two overlapping factors: laziness and lack of discipline. If you really want to write, then shut yourself in a room, close the door, and WRITE. If you don't want to write, do something else. It's as simple as that."
~ Mary Garden

"If you can quit, then quit. If you can't quit, then you're a writer."
~ R A Salvatore