Big Books of 2026

On Writing Quotes

Quotes tagged as "on-writing" Showing 1-30 of 353
William Wordsworth
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
― William Wordsworth
tags: on-writing, writing, writing-from-the-heart
3263 likes
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Robert Louis Stevenson
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson
tags: books, inspirational, on-writing, reading
2840 likes
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
tags: on-writing
2181 likes
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Dr. Seuss
“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
― Dr. Seuss
tags: editing, on-writing
1612 likes
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Isabel Allende
“Write what should not be forgotten.”
― Isabel Allende
tags: forgotten, on-writing, writing, writing-advice
1581 likes
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Virginia Woolf
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
tags: fiction, money, on-writing, virgin, women, writing
1484 likes
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Stephen King
“There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.”
― Stephen King
tags: great-writing, on-writing, stories, storytelling
1468 likes
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne
tags: on-writing, reading, writing
1380 likes
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Stephen King
“Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.”
― Stephen King
tags: on-writing, words, writing
1225 likes
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Leo Tolstoy
“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.”
― Leo Tolstoy
tags: on-writing, storytelling
971 likes
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Robert Frost
“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.”
― Robert Frost
tags: afflictions, on-writing, poetry
917 likes
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Nora Roberts
“You can fix anything but a blank page.”
― Nora Roberts
tags: on-writing, storytelling, writing
779 likes
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Mary Higgins Clark
“When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”
― Mary Higgins Clark
tags: on-writing, revenge, storytelling
666 likes
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Stephen King
“Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly.”
― Stephen King
tags: horror, king, on-writing, stephen-king
662 likes
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George Orwell
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?”
― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
tags: on-writing, writing
621 likes
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Stephen King
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
tags: on-reading, on-writing
564 likes
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Ernest Hemingway
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.”
― Hemingway, Ernest
tags: on-writing
461 likes
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Phyllis A. Whitney
“A good book isn't written, it's rewritten.”
― Phyllis A. Whitney, Guide to Fiction Writing
tags: fiction, on-fiction, on-writing, writing
431 likes
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Philip Pullman
“I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read.”
― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
tags: inspiration, on-writing, storytelling
387 likes
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Maureen Johnson
“Writing is one of the few careers for which you essentially train yourself, the other two major ones being juggling and pickpocketing.”
― Maureen Johnson
tags: on-writing
381 likes
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Margaret Atwood
“There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté.”
― Margaret Atwood , Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing
tags: authors, disappointment, epigrams, fandom, on-writing, similes, writers
377 likes
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Adrienne Rich
“You must write, and read, as if your life depended on it.”
― Adrienne Rich
tags: on-writing, reading
347 likes
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Mark Twain
“A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.”
― Mark Twain
tags: books, humor, on-writing, wit, writing
342 likes
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W. Somerset Maugham
“Only a mediocre person is always at his best. ”
― W. Somerset Maugham
tags: on-writing, writing
308 likes
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Mark Twain
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”
― Mark Twain
tags: on-writing
303 likes
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Anne Lamott
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
tags: on-writing
296 likes
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Stephen King
“Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot if difference. They don't have to makes speeches. Just believing is usually enough.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
tags: on-writing, writers
289 likes
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Mark Twain
“Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.”
― Mark Twain
tags: on-writing, writing-advice
265 likes
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Richard Brautigan
“I have always wanted to write a book that ended with the word 'mayonnaise.”
― Richard Brautigan
tags: on-writing
254 likes
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Stephen King
“The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
tags: on-writing, storytelling
241 likes
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