885 Quotes About Writing-advice

Sometimes, I'm brave.Sometimes, I'm just stubbron.

Criticism is the best test of such work, for it will show her both unsuspected merits and faults, and help her to do better next time. We are too partial; but the praise and blame of outsiders will prove useful...

The art of writing involves making as many cups of tea as you can in the time available for writing. Then adding extra time for writing...

The biggest difference between writing a movie and writing a novel? No one ever tries to sleep with me to get into one of my novels.

There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket.

Writing starts with living.

Love the work: the grind, the dreaming, the distracted not-sleep, all of it. It’s the one thing in the job that will always be there, and the real pleasure in the profession. Everything else is luck.

But, to write well it is entirely necessary to read widely and deeply. Good poems are the best teachers. Perhaps they are the only teachers. I would go so far as to say that, if one must make a choice between reading or taking part in a workshop, one should read.

In looking for poems and poets, don't dwell on the boundaries of style, or time, or even of countries and cultures. Think of yourself rather as one member of a single, recognizable tribe. Expect to understand poems of other eras and other cultures. Expect to feel intimate with the distant voice. The differences you will find between then and now are interesting. They are not profound. (p. 11)