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

Charles Baudelaire on Writing Style

“Always be a poet, even in prose.”

~ Charles Baudelaire

Source: BrainyQuote

Douglas Adams on Saving the World

“We don’t have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it.”

~ Douglas Adams

Source: WikiQuote

Janni Simner on the Writer’s Journey

“You’re going to have setbacks, and you’re going to be okay. This isn’t your one big chance. It’s the start of a long and winding (and heartbreaking and glorious) journey.”

~ Janni Simner, Author of the post-apocalyptic Bones of Faerie trilogy and the Iceland-based fantasy Thief Eyes

Source: For new writers (and also for the rest of us), August 6, 2013

Alison Headley on Starting Late

“In terms of being late or not starting at all, then it’s never too late.”

~ Alison Headley, Digital Preservation and Blogs, SXSW 2006

Source: Quotations Page

Theophile Gautier on Writers as Artists

“Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.”

~ Theophile Gautier

Source: BrainyQuote

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

George Eliot on Control, or It’s Lack, in Writing

“Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.”

~ George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy (1868), Book III

Source: WikiQuote

Rex Stout on the Relationship Between Genius and Getting There

“Genius is fine for the ignition spark, but to get there someone has to see that the radiator doesn’t leak and no tire is flat.”

~ Rex Todhunter Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975), The Doorbell Rang

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