Quotes for Writers

There are three types of writers in the world: those write to make living, those who write to be heard, and those who manage to combine the two. Regardless of why we write, we all face the challenge of connecting with the reader and communicating with editors. This collection of quotes for writers provides a light-hearted look at the life of a writer.

~Readers~
If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that's read by persons who move their lips when they're reading to themselves. ~Don Marquis

~Editors and Critics~
An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff. ~Adlai Stevenson

I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top. ~Unknown English Professor

No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft.~H.G.Wells

Don't be dismayed by the opinions of editors, or critics. They are only the traffic cops of the arts. ~Gene Fowler

A critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote. ~Mignon McLaughlin

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ~Arthur Polotnik

~The Writer~
The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Ana¯s Nin

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers. ~Logan Pearsall Smith

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler

What no wife [husband] of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window. ~Burton Rascoe


May you find inspiration in the words of others today, as you get on with the business of writing.