To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself. Anne Rice
Every writer I know has trouble writing. Joseph Heller
Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all. Charles Bukowski
Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing. Norman Mailer
The first draft is just you telling yourself the story. Terry Pratchett
We’re professional worriers. You’re constantly imagining things that could go wrong and then writing about them. John Green
A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. Thomas Mann
I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within. Gustave Flaubert
I hate writing, I love having written. Dorothy Parker
You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well. Jennifer Egan
I’ve always said, ‘I have nothing to say, only to add.’ And it’s with each addition that the writing gets done. The first draft of anything is really just a track. Gore Vidal
Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of job; it’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins. Neil Gaiman
Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer. Barbara Kingsolver
The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. William Faulkner
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. E.L. Doctorow
No book can ever be finished. While working on it we learn just enough to find it immature the moment we turn away from it. Karl Popper
I just give myself permission to suck. I delete about 90 percent of my first drafts… so it doesn’t really matter much if on a particular day I write beautiful and brilliant prose that will stick in the minds of my readers forever, because there’s a 90 percent chance I’m just gonna delete whatever I write anyway. I find this hugely liberating. John Green
I am not a great artist, but I have always felt impelled to write. So each day I sift the sludge anew, going through the cast-off bits and pieces of observation, of memory, of speculation, trying to make something out of the stuff that didn’t go through the filter and down the drain into the subconscious. Stephen King
One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing — writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off. Lawrence Block
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. Ernest Hemingway
Anyone who says writing is easy isn’t doing it right. Amy Joy
Writing is a struggle against silence. Carlos Fuentes
