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Now we know why some writers drink!

December 23, 2023May 9, 2025 805

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:

Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

Roddy Doyle

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

Edward Albee

It always comes down to characters, and individual stories about courage.

Steven Bochco

Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul.

M. K. Simmons

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

William Faulkner

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

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

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

Clarence Budington Kelland

Editor: A person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

Elbert Hubbard

You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.

Jodi Picoult

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

Jeanette Walls

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

Raymond Chandler

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

A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.

Robert McKee

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

Robert A. Heinlein

Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

Socially, a journalist fits in somewhere between a whore and a bartender. But spiritually he stands beside Galileo. He knows the world is round.

Sherman Reilly Duffy

Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.