Every time I hear writers talk about “the muse,” I just want to bitch-slap them. It’s a job. Do your job.
– Nora Roberts
Category: Quotable
Quotable 275
Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.
– Madeleine L’Engle
Quotable 274
Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it.
– David Brin
Quotable 273
For a writer, what you leave out says as much as those things you include. What lies beyond the margin of the text? The photographer frames the shot, writers frame their world.
– Jeanette Winterson
Quotable 272
Start writing by thinking, not wrestling with words.
– Jonathan Price
Quotable 271
If you are moved by someone else’s work, study it to discover how they made the magic.
– Jenny Wingfield
Quotable 270
Read, and above all reread. When you read, you get the great pleasure of discovering what happened. When you reread, you get the great pleasure of knowing where the author’s going and seeing how he goes about getting there – and that’s learning creative writing.
– Shelby Foote
Quotable 269
If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe 1 book, maybe 3 poems. Writers write from empathy.
– Nikki Giovanni
Quotable 268
A writer is someone who pays attention to the world – a writer is a professional observer.
– Susan Sontag
Quotable 267
Seek out writing advice, but don’t follow it blindly; experiment. Discover for yourself what’s best for your writing.
– Victoria Strauss