Top 20 Writing Quotes

20) Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke. 
 -F. Scott Fitzgerald

19) Books aren't written- they're rewritten. -Michael Crichton

18) The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile. -Robert Cormier

17) I learned to write by listening to people talk. I still feel that the best of my writing comes from having heard rather than having read. Gayl Jones

16) There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. -William Somerset Maugham

15) If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes. -Mickey Spillane

14) Easy reading is damn hard writing. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

13) We don't write what we know. We write what we wonder about. -Richard Peck

12) Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. -William Wordsworth

11) The mere habit of writing, of constantly keeping at it, of never giving up, ultimately teaches you how to write. -Gabriel Fielding

10) Read, read, read. Read everything- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. -William Faulkner

9) Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential. -Jessamyn West

8) I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. -James Michener

7) What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working even when he's staring out the window. -Burton Rascoe

6) The most valuable of talents is never using two words when one will do. -Thomas Jefferson

5) You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. -Jack London

4) Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day. -Norman Mailer

3) A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. -Richard Bach

2) Show don't tell. -Henry James

1) If you wish to be a writer, write. -Epictetus