Impulse Creative
As an Inbound Marketing Consultant, most of my job involves writing. Whether it's a blog, eBook, or social media post, I feel like I'm always writing. As a writer, I know that getting stuck in a rut and dealing with writer's block is the absolute worst. There are few things more frustrating than staring at the computer screen trying to write a blog – only to have nothing happen. The words aren't coming to you, you have no idea what to say, and you're just left staring at the clock watching time fade away.
Everyone has different methods for overcoming the frustrating moments of writer's block. For me, it's helpful to step away from my writing for a few moments and read something completely unrelated to what I'm working on. Specifically, I love reading quotes about writing. You know, the kind that makes you want to be a better writer.
So for all you writers out there struggling to finish that blog post or eBook, here are some of my favorite quotes about writing, creativity, and being a writer.
On Writing
1) "When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'One word at a time.'" – Stephen King
2) "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better." – Anne Lamott
3) "If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word." – Margaret Atwood
4) "Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." – William Faulkner
5) "You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence." – Octavia Butler
6) "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." – Elmore Leonard
7) "Nothing haunts us like the things we don't say." – Mitch Albom
8) "Anyone who says writing is easy isn't doing it right" – Amy Joy
9) "You write your first draft with your heart and you re-write with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think." – Sean Connery (as William Forrester)
On Being a Writer
10) "The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." – Anais Nin
11) "Quiet people have the loudest minds." – Stephen King
12) "Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self" – Cyril Connolly
13) "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."– Stephen King
14) "It's what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." – Oscar Wilde
15) "Every writer I know has trouble writing." – Joseph Heller
16) "A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, or because everything she does is golden. A writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any kind of promise, you keep writing anyway." – Junot Diaz
17) "Writers aren't exactly people. They're a whole bunch of people trying to be one person." – F. Scott Fitzgerald
On Creativity
18) "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." – Maya Angelou
19) "Creativity is intelligence having fun." – Albert Einstein
20) "And by the way, everything in life is writable if you have the outgoing guts to do it and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." – Sylvia Plath
21) "Creativity takes courage." – Henri Matisse
22) "The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail." – Edwin H. Land
23) "Creativity is what helps me escape a lot of my inner demons." – Demi Lovato
24) "Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way." – Edward de Bono
25) "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." – Jack London
Sound off: What are some of your favorite quotes about writing? Let us know in the comments!
