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What can we say? These authors have a way with words! 🤓

16 Writing Quotes By Authors That'll Spark Your Inner Literary Genius

writing quotes
Image via Artem Podrez/Pexels

The hardest thing about being a journalist is admitting that sometimes I get burnt out, but I've been relying on inspirational writing quotes to help give me an extra push. I think the biggest misconception everyone — myself included – has about creative careers is that people don't have to work as hard. Whether you're working on your novel one page at a time, pitching publications left and right, or simply trying to keep up with your daily journaling, writing takes work! And if you want to join the likes of Emily Henry or Yulin Kuang? Again, more work.

If you need a little inspo for your next one-stop or screenplay, here are 16 writing quotes that'll help give you the creative push you need to keep going!


writing quotes

"The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power." — Toni Morrison

writing quotes

"If you don't see the book you want on the shelf, write it." —Beverly Clearly

writing quotes

"If you fall in love with the vision and not your words, the rewriting will become easier." —Nora DeLoach

writing quotes

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see, and what it means. What I want and what I fear." —Joan Didion

writing quotes

"Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Make some light." —Kate DiCamillo

writing quotes

"[Write] knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them." —Edwina Danticat

writing quotes

"I know nothing in the world that has much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and look at it, until it shines." —Emily Dickinson

writing quotes

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." —Agatha Christie

writing quotes

"To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself." —Anne Rice

writing quotes

"If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word." —Margaret Atwood

writing quotes

"The first draft is a skeleton. Just bare bones. The rest of the story comes later with revising." —Judy Blume

writing quotes

"Writing is a process, a journey into the memory and the soul." —Isabel Allendale

writing quotes

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

writing quotes

"You may not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page." —Jodi Picoult

writing quotes

"I have always been fascinated by stories and language, and because I love thinking about what makes people tick." — Lois Lowry

writing quotes

"The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer." —Zadie Smith

Be sure to check out more inspirational quotes that you can apply to every area of your life!

Header image via Artem Podrez/Pexels

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