Because every
story begins
with words

Stephen King

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

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

E. B. White

The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.

Douglas Adams

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

Robert A. Heinlein

Stories are never too long or too short. They’re too interesting or too boring.

William Shawn

Biography should be written by an acute enemy.

Arthur Balfour

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

If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.

Stan Lee

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

Edward Albee

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

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.

Quentin Tarantino

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

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

Mickey Spillane

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

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

Clarence Budington Kelland

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

Joseph Conrad

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

Jodi Picoult

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it’s to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.

Jim Morrison

Ever heard of a carpenter not going to work because he has “carpenter’s block”? If a writer can’t write, it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper or he’s just plain lazy.

Chet Cunningham

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