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
It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.
—Anaïs Nin
You are going to have to give and give and give, or there’s no reason for you to be writing. You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and you are going to have to go on giving, and the giving is going to have to be its own reward. There is no cosmic importance to your getting something published, but there is in learning to be a giver.
—Anne Lamott
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
—Cyril Connolly
Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.
—Russel Lynes
I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.
—Peter De Vries
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.
—Jules Renard
The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.
—Russell Baker
In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.
—George Orwell
Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
—Cyril Connolly
Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
—Stephen King
Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.
—Frank Zappa
About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.
—Josh Billings
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
—Winston Churchill
I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true.
—Dorothy Parker