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You’ve heard of writer’s block. But have you heard of reader’s block?

August 5, 2019May 9, 2025 676

I found this in the August 2nd, 2019, New York Times. Fun reading…if you’re not suffering from reader’s block:

Reader’s block article

If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.

William C. Gault

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

Roald Dahl

Anecdotes don’t make good stories. Generally, I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.

Alice Munro

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

Robert A. Heinlein

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

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

Stan Lee

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

Jim Morrison

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

Stephen Wright

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

Raymond Chandler

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

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.

Matthew Arnold

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

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

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

Stephen King

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

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

William Shawn

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

Lawrence Wray

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

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

Mickey Spillane

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