426 Quotes About Writing-craft

The paradox of writing is that you’re trying to use words to express what words can’t express.

On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.

When you write, it’s like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others are short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light. Like the diverse women of your family. Those whose fables and metaphors, whose similes and soliloquies, whose diction and je ne sais quoi daily slip into your survival soup, by way of their fingers.

You can't have good ideas unless you have lots of ideas.

It was a miracle to me, this transformation of my acorns into an oak.

The hard part is putting one word after another.

I really learned how to write from Robert Louis Stevenson, Anthony Trollope, and de Maupassant.

Writing novels is the hardest thing I've ever done, including digging irrigation ditches.

I just write whenever I can.