1000 Greatest Writer’s Quotes of All Time

So we thought we would put together the 1000 Greatest Writer’s Quotes of all time. Then I got lazy. It’s harder than it looks gathering up all these quotes. Finding the ones that are “best.” Finding the ones that are most telling about writing and writers. Anyway, I thought I would just ask you guys to help. It’s too much you know, to do all by myself.

So, if you would please, drop your favorite writing quote about writing by a writer in the comments, and I WILL add them to the list 100 at a time. Once we get to 100 more quotes I will add them to this list. Please help. Just you know, find your favorite quote, and add it.

Also, I made this nifty graphic up there, it’s so you can share it and tell people to help me to come up with 1000 quotes, please!

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
Ernest Hemingway

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
Toni Morrison

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Stephen King

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
Mark Twain

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
Robert Frost

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
William Faulkner

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
Mark Twain

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
Ray Bradbury

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”
Stephen King

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
Anton Chekhov

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
Henry David Thoreau

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
Kurt Vonnegut,

“The first draft of anything is shit.”
Ernest Hemingway

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
Thomas Mann,

“There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
Charles Dickens

“let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences”
Sylvia Plath

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
William Wordsworth

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Richard

Richard Everywriter (pen name) is the founder of EveryWriter and a 25-year veteran of the publishing industry. With degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology, and Education, Richard has dedicated two decades to teaching writing and literature while championing emerging voices through EveryWriter's platform. His work focuses on making literary analysis accessible to readers at all levels while preserving the rich heritage of American literature. Connect with Richard on Twitter  Bluesky Facebook or explore opportunities to share your own work on ourSubmissions page. For monthly insights on writing and publishing, subscribe to our Newsletter.

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