1,068 Quotes About Writers-on-writing

[The] reader is not primarily interested in plot. He is interested in what happens because he is interested in the character it happens to. No incident has any place in the story unless it has an emotional impact on the character--and on the reader.Newbery Acceptance Speech

A good writer should be able to communicate to the reader, 'I know your life. I know what you have truly experienced. It’s not right or wrong. It’s survival. It’s making mistakes, and trying to redeem yourself. It’s imperfections, and trying to make yourself better. It’s outrages, and crimes, and insults, which often are not righted, which you have to fix yourself, in your own mind, in your own heart, so that you are not poisoned'.

Writers and their book characters share a magical bond that makes them friends forever.

Writing nonfiction means I tell people's stories for them, not because they're special but because we all are.

An ad for cigars appears in 100,000 newspapers; sales of that brand increase by 3% for a short time thereafter. A new play receives a viciously negative review in a theatrical journal that prints 500 copies; the playwright shoots himself. Who’s the better writer?

Now the second common characteristic of fiction follows from this, and it is that fiction is presented in such a way that the reader has the sense that it is unfolding around him. This doesn't mean he has to identify himself with the character or feel compassion for the character or anything like that. It just means that fiction has to be largely presented rather than reported. Another way to say it is that though fiction is a narrative art, it relies heavily on the element of drama.

I never really found a way to fit in or stand out and I lost myself in the crowd and people’s expectations.

Every day of life, we create a story, which discursive script will someday become only a memory.

Sharing our noble journey, attentively quantifying our reality, dreams, fears, and spiritual renaissance for other communal souls to witness, while giving voice to our own spark of divinity, inspiration, and mythos through storytelling, is the preeminent act of human beings.