Young Writers Quotes

“All glory comes from daring to begin.”
― Ruskin Bond, Scenes from a Writer's Life

“Advice to young writers wo want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don't write about Man, write about a man.”
― E.B. White

“I was amazed by the fact that I was not the only writer living, not the only young man "with a locomotive in his chest, and that's a fact," not the only youth with a million hungers and not one of them appeasable, not the only one who is lonely among multitudes, and does not know why.”
― Jack Kerouac

“Fiction, like sculpture or painting, begins with a rough
sketch. One gets down the characters and their behavior any
way one can, knowing the sentences will have to be revised,knowing the characters' actions may change. It makes no difference
how clumsy the sketch is—sketches are not supposed
to be polished and elegant. All that matters is that, going over
and over the sketch as if one had all eternity for finishing one's
story, one improves now this sentence, now that, noticing
what changes the new sentences urge, and in the process one
gets the characters and their behavior clearer in one's head,
gradually discovering deeper and deeper implications of the
characters' problems and hopes.”
― john gardner, On Becoming a Novelist

“Stay strong. Focus on the ultimate goal.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

“The question one asks of the young writer who wants to
know if he's got what it takes is this: "Is writing novels what
you want to do? Really want to do?"
If the young writer answers, "Yes," then all one can say is:
Do it. In fact, he will anyway.”
― John Gardner, On Becoming a Novelist

“I’m not in the advice business. However, people have been sending increasing
amounts of books / videos / manuscripts / poems / photographs / artworks / long raving emails
describing plans for certain masterpieces. Mostly this is a pleasure, but I would like to take the
opportunity to offer one piece of advice to young artists and writers.

Be disciplined. Be hard on yourself. Remember that you are competing with some of the greatest minds in history. If you are a painter, for example, you are entering into a race where Michelangelo
and Picasso already have leads. Ask yourself if you have done everything you can, everything in
your power, to compete with those guys. It’s not a matter of painting like them or of conceiving of
art like them. You can do your own thing. It’s a matter of pushing yourself, the way they pushed
themselves, to do in art what no one else could do. Why accept anything less of yourself?

Wittgenstein: “What you have achieved cannot mean more to others than it does to you. Whatever
it has cost you, that’s what they’ll pay.”
― Supervert

“Keep your whole being on the thing you are turning into words. The minute you flinch, and take your mind off this thing, and begin to look at the words and worry about them... Then your worry goes into them and they set about killing each other. So you keep going as long as you can, then look back and see what you have written. After a bit of practice and after telling yourself you are going to use any old word that comes into your head so long as it seems right, you will surprise yourself. You will read back through what you have written and you will get a shock. You will have captured a spirit, a creature.”
― Ted Hughes, Poetry in the Making: An Anthology

“If the future depends on stories, then our future looks bright indeed.”
― Pawan Mishra

“When a writer first begins to write, he or she feels the same
first thrill of achievement that the young gambler or oboe
player feels: winning a little, losing some, the gambler sees the
glorious possibilities, exactly as the young oboist feels an indescribable
thrill when he gets a few phrases to sound like real
music, phrases implying an infinite possibility for satisfaction
and self-expression. As long as the gambler or oboist is only
playing at being a gambler or oboist, everything seems possible.
But when the day comes that he sets his mind on becoming a professional, suddenly he realizes how much there is to learn, how little he knows.”
― John Gardner, On Becoming a Novelist

“I think I was born making up stories in my head. I wrote my first play when I was 5. No, I couldn’t write yet. It was with a stick on a piece of paper that floated by on the wind, and it was about a girl named Cindy. The fact that it closely resembled Cinderella is pure coincidence.”
― Darynda Jones

“You can best write about your own experiences.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Our future depends on stories. As the world advances, literature has the ability to ground us—in our humanness, our imaginations, and our enlightenment.”
― Pawan Mishra

“Around 1980, I’d been writing short stories, all to no success; so I wrote a fan letter to Stephen King and asked “How long should it take an aspiring writer to either get published or know when to give up?” Lo and behold, King wrote back to me in long hand with blue flair pen on 14-inch paper, purveying a very nice, helpful note; in it he said my letter proved a “command of the language,” that I should never give up, and that it would take years to succeed, not months. “That’s cold comfort but it’s the truth.” This was the ultimate encouragement for a young writer to be who didn’t know shit about the market. I took Mr. King’s advice and actually sold my first novel little more than a year later. I’ll always be copiously grateful for this advice, and it’s the same advice I give aspiring writers now (along with the story of King’s reply!).”
― Edward Lee

“Being a writer, I take thing seriously (not too seriously). I may be a young writer/self publisher, I do love to write and I want to share my stories to the world. but more importantly, I do take writing seriously.”
― Simi Sunny

“Fueled by the need to interpret the past, to explore the present, and to imagine the future, each generation shapes the world of books.”
― Pawan Mishra

“My advice to young writers is this: read widely, think independently, live fully, and travel adventurously. Do not narrow the road of your life. If you have not gathered perspectives and voices and if you have not learned to think independently, then what you write will have the depth of a sewing thimble.”
― Sholeh Wolpé

“Believe your words matter. Because they do, and they always will.”
― Kayla King