We all have days when we need a little extra inspiration. Writers especially can benefit from a little added encouragement, and sometimes the best way to stay focused and positive is to listen to the words of other writers.
Here are a few of our favorite quotes about writing, reading and books. Do you have a favorite quote that helps keep you motivated or inspired? Let us know in the comments below.
On books & reading:
“Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.”
— Louisa May Alcott
“If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one’s chances of survival increase with each book one reads.”
— Sherman Alexie
“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”
— Confucius
“When I get a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes.”
— Erasmus
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
— Stephen King
“I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book.”
— Groucho Marx
“If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
— Toni Morrison
“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.”
— Joyce Carol Oates
“Be awesome! Be a book nut!”
— Dr. Seuss
“Reading usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.”
— Susan Sontag
“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
— Mark Twain
“Books had instant replay long before televised sports.”
— Bern Williams
On writing:
“Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there.”
— Thomas Berger
“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”
— Ray Bradbury
“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
— Cyril Connolly
“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
— E.L. Doctorow
“The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.”
— Ernest Gaines
“The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.”
— Stephen King
“The secret of good writing is telling the truth.”
— Gordon Lish
“The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written.”
— Joyce Carol Oates
“Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.”
— Jules Renard
“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
— Gloria Steinem
“It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.”
— Mark Twain
“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”
— Virginia Woolf
[Picture of writing desk from Shutterstock.]
