85 Raw and Honest Writing Quotes You Can’t Miss

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Ever find yourself chuckling at a witty line from your favorite author?  

We bookworms know writers have a special way with words, even when they’re not crafting their next bestseller. Their quips about life, love, and the art of writing itself often hit home in the most unexpected ways.

These wisdom bombs remind us that behind every great book is a very human author, complete with doubts, joys, and occasional writer’s block. 

In this article, let’s have a look at the most memorable quotes from writers who’ve touched our hearts and tickled our funny bones. It’s time to explore the clever, inspiring, and sometimes downright hilarious things authors have said over the years.

1. “You can make anything by writing.” — C.S. Lewis

2. “Half my life is an act of revision.” — John Irving

3. “If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” — Isaac Asimov

4. “I think new writers are too worried that it has all been said before. Sure it has, but not by you.” — Asha Dornfest

5. “I’m a writer. And I live in imagination to survive in reality.” — Phyllis Webstad

6. “It’s okay. Writers should be strange.”— Edgar Allan Poe

7. “You fail only if you stop writing.” — Ray Bradbury

8. “Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” — Isaac Asimov

9. “The pen is the tongue of the mind.” — Miguel de Cervantes

10. “We are writers, my love. We don’t cry. We bleed on paper.” — A.Y.

11. “Always be a poet, even in prose.” — Charles Baudelaire

12. “A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

13. “A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.” – Susan Sontag

14. “A writer is a world trapped in a person.” — Victor Hugo

15. “Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet.” — Unknown

16. “Writer’s block: When your imaginary friends refuse to talk to you.” – Mary Papas

17. “A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.” — Sidney Sheldon

18. “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” — Madeleine L’Engle

19. “No tears in the writer. No tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer. No surprise in the reader.” – Robert Frost

20. “Writers live twice.” — Natalie Goldberg

21. “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” — Albert Camus

22. “Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.” — Ayn Rand

23. “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” — Toni Morrison

24. “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

25. “Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences.” — Sylvia Plath

26. “Tears are words that need to be written.” — Paulo Coelho

27. “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go.” — Elmore Leonard

28. “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” — Henry David Thoreau

29. “I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

30. “A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles.” — Carl Sagan

31. “You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” — Saul Bellow

32. “Find out the reason that commands you to write.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

33. “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” — John Steinbeck

34. “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything.” — Aldous Huxley

35. “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” — Ray Bradbury

36. “I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.” — Erica Jong

37. “Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.” — Norman Mailer

38. “Writing is its own reward.” — Henry Miller

39. “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” — Anne Frank

 

40. “Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it.” — William Faulkner

41. “Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.” — A.A. Milne

42. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

43. “A word after a word after a word is power.” — Margaret Atwood

44. “Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” — Annie Proulx

45. “To survive, you must tell stories.” — Umberto Eco

46. “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” — Herman Melville

47. “Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed.” — Hermann Hesse

48. “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” — William Faulkner

49. “Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

50. “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King

51. “The secret to editing your work is simple: You need to become its reader instead of its writer.” — Zadie Smith

52. “The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into a new land.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

53. “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” — Margaret Atwood

54. “Writing is the painting of the voice.” — Voltaire

55. “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” — Henry David Thoreau

56. “No one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.” — Charles de Lint

57. “If you do not hear music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.” — Terry Brooks

58. “If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise: attack it at an hour when it isn’t expecting it.” — H.G. Wells

59. “Keep asking questions because people will always want to know the answer. Open with a question and don’t answer it until the end.” — Lee Child

60. “Be willing and unafraid to write badly, because often the bad stuff clears the way for good, or forms a base on which to build something better.” — Jennifer Egan

61. “The job of the novelist is to invent: to embroider, to color, to embellish, to make things up.” — Donna Tart

62. “The first draft is a skeleton. Just bare bones. The rest of the story comes later with revising.” — Judy Bloom

63. “Writing is an act of faith, not a grammar trick.” — E.B. White

64. “Creativity is a combination of discipline and childlike spirit.” — Robert Greene

65. “If you don’t see the book you want on the shelf, write it.” — Beverly Cleary

66. “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louis L’Amour

67. “When all else fails, write what your heart tells you. You can’t depend on your eyes, when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain

68. “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” – William Wordsworth

69. “But when people say, did you always want to be a writer? I have to say no! I always was a writer.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

70. “You may not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” – Jodi Picoult

71. “Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Make some light.” – Kate DiCamillo

72. “Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself… it’s a self-exploratory operation that is endless.” – Harper Lee

73. “If you fall in love with the vision and not your words, the rewriting will become easier.” – Nora DeLoach

74. “As a writer, you should not judge. You should understand.” – Ernest Hemingway

75. “Successful writing is one part inspiration and two parts sheer stubbornness.” – Gillian Flynn

76. “That’s what you’re looking for as a writer when you’re working. You’re looking for your own freedom.” – Philip Roth

77. “You should write stories because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page.” – Annie Proulx

78. “Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.” – Ray Bradbury

79. “The secret of it all is to write… without waiting for a fit time or place.” — Walt Whitman

80. “Good stories are not written. They are rewritten.”— Phyllis Whitney

81. “I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be stilled.” — Sylvia Plath

82. “Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.” — Virginia Woolf

83. “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see, and what it means.” — Joan Didion

84. “When you are describing a shape, or sound, or tint, don’t state the matter plainly, but put it in a hint.” — Lewis Carroll

85. “Write a page a day. Only 300 words and in a year you have written a novel.” — Stephen King

Well, my fellow book lovers, we’ve taken quite a stroll through the garden of writerly wisdom, haven’t we? 

As we tuck these pearls of insight into our mental pockets, let’s remember that writers are just like us – they struggle, they laugh, they ponder life’s big questions. Their words can be a comforting companion on quiet afternoons or a spark for creativity. 

The next time you’re curled up with a good book, imagine the author sitting across from you, sharing these thoughts over a warm cup of tea. Who knows? You might find yourself inspired to pick up a pen and add your quote to the mix. 

After all, every writer started as a reader, just like you and me.