Ann Patchett on What Writing Is

“Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.”

~ Ann Patchett (born December 2, 1963), Truth and Beauty

Source: Goodreads

Joan Didion on the Impulse to Write

“The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.”

~ Joan Didion (born December 5, 1934), Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Source: GoodReads

Joseph Conrad on His Dislike of Work

“I don’t like work–no man does–but I like what is in the work–the chance to find yourself. Your own reality–for yourself not for others–what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.”

~ Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad ‪Nałęcz‬ Korzeniowski, 3 December 1857  – 3 August 1924)

Source: GoodReads

Jack Kerouac on People

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”

~ Jack Kerouac, born Jean-Louis Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), On the Road

Source: American Society of Authors and Writers, It Happened in History: Jack Kerouac

 

Lucy Maud Montgomery on the Indefatigability of Dreams

“You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams.”

~ Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), The Road to Yesterday

Source: GoodReads

Louisa May Alcott on Taking Fate by the Throat

“Resolve to take fate by the throat and shake a living out of her.”

~ Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888)

Source: About.com: Women’s History: Louisa May Alcott

Madeleine L’Engle on Writing What Wants to be Written

“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 (November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007)

Source: About.com: Women’s History: Madeleine L’Engle Quotes

C. S. Lewis on the Insatiable Desire

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

~ C. S. Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963)

Source: GoodReads

Jane Rule on Bearing Witness

“If we don’t bear witness as citizens, as people, as individuals, the right that we have had to life is sacrificed. There is a silence, instead of a speaking presence.”

~ Jane Rule

Source: Brainy Quote: Jane Rule

Edward Albee on the Optimism of Writing

“The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn’t matter.”

~ Edward Albee

Source: Eminent Quotables: What Writers Say About Writing