Now we know why some writers drink!

23 Dec, 2023

There is a stereotype out there about writers. They're talented and frustrated and hit the bottle way too often. Maybe the reason some talented writers are frustrated and drink to excess is because of what they're asked to write. Example:

Why Writers Drink

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Now we know why some writers drink!

December 23, 2023May 9, 2025

There is a stereotype out there about writers. They’re talented and frustrated and hit the bottle way too often. Maybe the reason Read More...

It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.

Bob Dylan

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.

Gloria Steinem

I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.

John Legend

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.

Michael Burke

The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.

George Bernard Shaw

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has just put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A writer is a world trapped in a person.

Victor Hugo

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

E. B. White

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.

Jeanette Walls

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Mark Twain

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G.K. Chesterton

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

Anton Chekhov

Just don’t be boring!

Robert Liebmann

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.

George Singleton

Don’t annoy an author, you’ll end up in their book and you won’t look good.

Lawrence Wray

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.