Writing is nothing more than a guided dream. Jorge Luis Borges
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Dr. Seuss
The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. Albert Einstein
Writing is a product of silence and solitude. Unknown
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
One can never be alone enough to write. Susan Sontag
Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it. Lloyd Alexander
Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from
nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously
unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your
job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.
Stephen King
Wherever you write is supposed to be a little bit of a
refuge, a place where you can get away from the world. The more closed
in you are, the more you’re forced back on your own imagination. Stephen
King
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s. Stephen King
Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. John Steinbeck
Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. Franz Kafka
Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it’s a way
of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I
do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities. Dr. Seuss
Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty
unfamiliar and perilous – to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the
opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd. Thomas Mann
Solitude is creativity’s best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls. Naomi Judd
If you can tell stories, create characters, devise
incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how
you write. Somerset Maugham
Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life. Joseph Conrad
We’re past the age of heroes and hero kings… Most of our
lives are basically mundane and dull, and it’s up to the writer to find
ways to make them interesting. John Updike
And by the way, everything in life is writable about if
you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. Sylvia Plath
When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature. Ernest Hemingway
There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be. Doris Lessing
In solitude I find my answers. Kristen Butler
Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you
are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical
sentences. Anne McCaffrey
Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and
society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone,
uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an
undertaking. Jessamyn West
Belief and reader absorption come in the details: An
overturned tricycle in the gutter of an abandoned neighborhood can stand
for everything. Stephen King
Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one. Terry Pratchett
The best thinking has been done in solitude. Thomas Edison
Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman. Virginia Woolf
Poetry: the best words in the best order. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The poet doesn’t invent. He listens. Jean Cocteau
There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money either. Robert Graves
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. Robert Frost
Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry. Muriel Rukeyser
Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. Ernest Hemingway
Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. Marianne Moore
Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks. Plutarch
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. T. S. Eliot
Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all
storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets
share something in common: They had something to say, and did. Sarah Kay
Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. Thomas Gray
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. T. S. Eliot
A poem is never finished, only abandoned. Paul Valery
Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. Kahlil Gibran
Only the poet can look beyond the detail and see the whole picture. Helen Hayes
Poetry creates the myth, the prose writer draws its portrait. Jean-Paul Sartre
Poetry is an act of peace. Pablo Neruda
Style means the right word. The rest matters little. Jules Renard
I do not over-intellectualise the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story. Tom Clancy
Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life. Hunter S. Thompson
Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear. Ezra Pound
My aim in constructing sentences is to make the sentence
utterly easy to understand, writing what I call transparent prose. I’ve
failed dreadfully if you have to read a sentence twice to figure out
what I meant. Ken Follett
After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world. Philip Pullman
I want the story to have a rhythm that keeps moving
forward. Because that’s the whole point of telling a story. You’re on a
journey — you’re going from here to there. It’s got to move. Ursula K.
Le Guin
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. Henry David Thoreau
I have been successful probably because I have always
realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell
an interesting story entertainingly. Edgar Rice Burroughs
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. Anton Chekhov
And one of [the things you learn as you get older] is,
you really need less… My model for this is late Beethoven. He moves so
strangely and quite suddenly sometimes from place to place in his music,
in the late quartets. He knows where he’s going and he just doesn’t
want to waste all that time getting there. … One is aware of this as one
gets older. You can’t waste time. Ursula K. Le Guin
My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way. Ernest Hemingway
Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart
feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your
games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive
element in your style. Stephen King
One of the really bad things you can do to your writing
is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re
maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. Stephen King
When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone.
Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a
story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering
children, but it must be done. Stephen King
Part 1. I notice that you use plain, simple language,
short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it
is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and
flowers and verbosity creep in. Mark Twain
Part 2. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t
mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable.
They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they
are wide apart. Mark Twain
Part 3. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery
habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any
other vice. Mark Twain
All stories have to at least try to explain some small portion of the meaning of life. Gene Weingarten
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. Thomas Jefferson
You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page. Jodi Picoult
It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer. Gerald Brenan
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. William Somerset Maugham
Trust your reader, don’t try to describe things. Give a
hint and they will fulfill this hint with their own imagination. Paulo
Coelho
The blizzard doesn’t last forever; it just seems so. Ray Bradbury
Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins.
Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most
of all, endurance. James Baldwin
In a story it’s the scene – the setting / characters /
action / interaction / dialogue / feelings – that makes us hold our
breath, and cry .. and turn the page to find out what happens next. And
so, until the scene ends, each sentence should lead to the next
sentence. Ursula K. Le Guin
Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have
to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It’s a mysterious process,
but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as
you may have noticed. J.K. Rowling
I’ve been writing since I was six. It is a compulsion, so
I can’t really say where the desire came from; I’ve always had it. My
breakthrough with the first book came through persistence, because a lot
of publishers turned it down. J.K. Rowling
Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose
track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps.
Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised. John Steinbeck
As for “Write what you know,” I was regularly told this
as a beginner. I think it’s a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I
write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets,
dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know
them better than anybody else possibly could, so it’s my duty to testify
about them. Ursula K. Le Guin
Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be
a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard,
constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as
writer. Ray Bradbury
The more I’m let alone and not worried the better I can function. Ernest Hemingway
I go out to my little office, where I’ve got a
manuscript, and the last page I was happy with is on top. I read that,
and it’s like getting on a taxiway. I’m able to go through and revise it
and put myself – click – back into that world. Stephen King
When I’m working I work every day, three, four hours, and
I try to get those six pages and I try to get them faily clean. Stephen
King
All my life as a writer I have been committed to the idea
that in fiction the story value holds dominance over every other facet
of the writer’s craft; characterization, theme, mood, none of these
things is anything if the story is dull. And if the story does hold you,
all else can be forgiven. Stephen King
On first drafts: It is completely raw, the sort of thing I
feel free to do with the door shut — it’s the story undressed, standing
up in nothing but its socks and undershorts. Stephen King
Sleep on your writing; take a walk over it; scrutinize it
of a morning; review it of an afternoon; digest it after a meal; let it
sleep in your drawer a twelvemonth; never venture a whisper about it to
your friend, if he be an author especially. Amos Bronson Alcott
It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the
creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book
quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep
in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the
sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything. Virginia
Woolf
Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the
book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. Annie
Dillard
First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him. Ray Bradbury
Anyone, anywhere, can make a positive difference. Mark Sanborn
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. John C. Maxwell
Do what is right, not what is easy. Unknown
The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes. Tony Blair
Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors. Jocko Willink
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. Bill Gates
In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders. Sheryl Sandberg
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe
in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. Seth
Godin
A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock,
letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not
realizing that all along they are being directed from behind. Nelson
Mandela
Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing. Peter F. Drucker
A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. Max Lucado
Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. Peter F. Drucker
Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. George Patton
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William
Arthur Ward
You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a
wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the
start, you’ll never stick it out. Steve Jobs
The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set
aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.
Brandon Sanderson
Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know
when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it. Unknown (Submitted
by the Wisdom Quotes Community)
Don’t waste your energy trying to educate or change
opinions; go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically
when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing, and don’t
care if they like it. Tina Fey
You don’t need a title to be a leader. Mark Sanborn
If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to
dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an
excellent leader. Dolly Parton
A boss has the title, a leader has the people. Simon Sinek
A leader takes people where they want to go. A great
leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go but ought to
be. Rosalynn Carter
We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children. Kofi Annan
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. Stephen R. Covey
Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led. Warren Bennis
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Steve Jobs
Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself.
It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult. Warren Bennis
A leader is a dealer in hope. Napoleon Bonaparte
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants. Isaac Newton
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from
mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not
thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and
courageously uses his intelligence. Albert Einstein
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller
The only safe ship in a storm is leadership. Faye Wattleton
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or
if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek. Barack Obama
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. Warren Buffett
Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the
great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must
begin with a single step. Lao Tzu
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you
made them feel. Maya Angelou
To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt
We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10000 ways that won’t work. Thomas A. Edison
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. Steve Jobs
Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. Buddha
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when
his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.
Lao Tzu
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Napoleon Hill
Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being
uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it’s a small price to pay for
living a dream. Peter McWilliams
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them. Winston Churchill
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. Albert Einstein
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. Theodore Roosevelt
To lead people, walk behind them. Lao Tzu
The price of greatness is responsibility. Winston Churchill
We rise by lifting others. Robert Ingersoll
All leaders are readers. Jim Rohn
Hire character. Train skill. Peter Schutz
Act or do not act, but do not hedge. Peter F. Drucker
What gets measured gets improved. Peter F. Drucker
Discipline equals freedom. Jocko Willink
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. Theodore Hesburgh
Leadership distilled down to 3 words: Make a difference. Robin Sharma
Victims make excuses. Leaders deliver results. Robin Sharma
Ego clouds and disrupts everything. Jocko Willink
Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego. Jocko Willink
The cautious seldom err. Confucius
Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it. John Naisbitt
Earn your leadership every day. Michael Jordan
My life didn’t please me, so I created my life. Coco Chanel
There is always room at the top. Daniel Webster
Leaders don’t inflict pain, they share pain. Max De Pree
Faith moves mountains, love transforms hearts. John Paul Warren
Don’t find fault, find a remedy. Henry Ford
A winner is a dreamer who never gives up. Nelson Mandela
Whatever you are, be a good one. Abraham Lincoln
A king is one who fears nothing. Seneca
Done is better than perfect. Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook)
Leaders live by choice, not by accident. Mark Gorman
The test of leadership is, is anything or anyone better because of you? Mark Sanborn
You manage things; you lead people. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. Margaret Fuller
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. Publilius Syrus
One voice can change a room. Barack Obama
What does your heart say? Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
Our destiny is not written for us, but by us. Barack Obama
Inventories can be managed, but people must be led. H. Ross Perot
Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. John D. Rockefeller
If your objective is to be as good as you can be, then you’re going to want criticism. Ray Dalio
The test of organization is not genius. It is its capacity to make common people achieve uncommon performance. Peter F. Drucker
Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights,
the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building
of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Peter F. Drucker
Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory. Jocko Willink
Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about
it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it. Jocko Willink
To be more requires a man who is conceited enough to
believe that the world really needs him and depends on his getting into
power. Peter F. Drucker
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. Henrik Ibsen
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who
can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution
everybody can understand. Colin Powell
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things. Jesse Jackson
Leadership is a mindset in action. So don’t wait for the
title. Leadership isn’t something that anyone can give you – you have to
earn it and claim it for yourself. Travis Bradberry
It’s not about money or connections – it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone. Mark Cuban
You can be a leader in your workplace, your neighborhood, or your family, all without having a title. Travis Bradberry
It is well to respect the leader. Learn from him. Observe
him. Study him. But don’t worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe
you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are
invariably second-best doers. David J. Schwartz
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The important thing is this: to be able to give up in any given moment all that we are for what we can become. DeSeaux
To the highest leadership among women it is given to hold
steadily in one hand the sacred vessels that hold the ancient
sanctities of life, and in the other a flaming torch to light the way
for oncoming generations. Anna Garlin Spencer
The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. Malcolm X
Leaders are people who believe so passionately that they can seduce other people into sharing their dream. Warren Bennis
Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal. E. Joseph Cossman
A year from now you will wish you had started today. Karen Lamb
The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been. Henry Kissinger
It’s your unlimited power to create and to love that can make the biggest difference in the quality of your life. Tony Robbins
For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of
life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to
achieve, to conquer. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all
your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find the happiness
that you had thought could never be yours. Dale Carnegie
Great masters neither want nor need your worship. Your
greatest gift to them and yourself is to emulate their divinity by
claiming it as your own. Alan Cohen
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. Vince Lombardi
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. Henry Ford
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. Alice Walker
We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is
to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark. Whoopi
Goldberg
The value of achievement lies in the achieving. Albert Einstein
Leaders don’t force people to follow – they invite them on a journey. Charles S. Lauer
Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off. Colin Powell
Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men – the other 999 follow women. Groucho Marx
People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. Thomas Sowell
You either run with lions or walk with sheep. Matshona Dhliwayo
People who don’t take risks generally make about two big
mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big
mistakes a year. Peter F. Drucker
In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way. Tina Fey
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu walked by a
construction site on a temporary sidewalk the width of one person. A
white man appeared at the other end, recognized Tutu, and said, ‘I don’t
make way for gorillas.’ At which Tutu stepped aside, made a deep
sweeping gesture, and said, ‘Ah, yes, but I do.’ Walter Wink
Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way. George Patton
But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not
imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at
Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers.
But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. Carl Sagan
A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason. J.P. Morgan
If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you. If you really make them think, they’ll hate you. Don Marquis
It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. Adlai Stevenson
The most effective way to do it, is to do it. Amelia Earhart
Don’t be so humble – you are not that great. Golda Meir
