On my google page I collect Quote of the Day and in my email, a Daily Inspirational quote.


Because I’m still nose to grindstone with my manuscript-due-June 16, I went looking for some inspirational quotations about writing to get me through. (Yes yes I do realize that by doing this my nose has strayed from the grindstone)

Here are some Writing Quotations I found (Diane comments are in red):

There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith (a vein??)

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler (More blood?)

So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it. ~Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948 (Do you mean if I write, I might be wrecking some paper?)

A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. ~Charles Peguy (These quotes are not exactly inspiring me…)

Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. ~Franz Kafka (Okay. Now I’m depressed)

Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~Joseph Heller (Aw, thanks, Joe. That’s reassuring)

Loafing is the most productive part of a writer’s life. ~James Norman Hall (I know! I know!)

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. ~William Makepeace Thackeray (This is more like it)

 Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn’t we? ~Audra Foveo-Alba (I’ve been asking myself this very question)

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth (Sigh!)

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov (I’m reassured)

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov (This is what I aspire to do!)

As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out. ~Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894 (Um…isn’t this contradicting Chekhov?)

 When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don’t state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.
~Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (Oh)

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard, “Diary,” February 1895 (That’s the ticket!)

Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. THomas Jefferson (oh oh. Now we’re getting into mechanics)

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space. ~Orson Scott Card (What’s a metaphor?)

A metaphor is like a simile. ~Author Unknown (Oh)

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain (But what if you can’t think of lightning, because lightning bug is stuck in your mind…)

A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one. ~Baltasar Gracián (Isn’t it, though!)

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure. ~Henry David Thoreau (Yipes)

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don’t start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
~William Safire, “Great Rules of Writing” (Uh…very helpful, Bill)

The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson (Yeah!)

Writer’s block is a disease for which there is no cure, only respite. ~Laurie Wordholt (I’m starting to get nervous again)

I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener (Me, too, Jimmy)

Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. ~Sholem Asch (Ain’t that the truth!)

The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook… ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827 (Haven’t I told you before that I am so-not-a-cook? I’m even worse at gardening)

 My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin. ~Karl Kraus (Karl, there is no need to get crude)

 It is impossible to discourage the real writers – they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write. ~Sinclair Lewis
(That’s me! I’m going to write.)

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart… William Wordsworth
(Ah, now this is inspiration!)

Writing only leads to more writing. ~ Colette
(one can hope!)

Whew!
Tell us your favorite writing quote!

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