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Now we know why some writers drink!

December 23, 2023May 9, 2025 677

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

When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Neil Gaiman

Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.

Robert Altman

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

I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.

Roald Dahl

Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.

Stephen King

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

Clarence Budington Kelland

If you start with a bang, you won’t end with a whimper.

T.S. Eliot

I haven’t got 10 rules that guarantee success, though I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.

J.K. Rowling

Every writer with half a brain knows to surround himself or herself with editors who are smarter, far more articulate and infinitely better looking.

Chris Claremont

I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

Tom Clancy

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

Oscar Wilde

The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.

George Bernard Shaw

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

Mickey Spillane

In Hollywood, the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can’t read. If they could read their stuff, they’d stop writing.

Will Rogers

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow

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

E. B. White

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

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

Robert A. Heinlein

I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.