The stoical motto is “What hinders you.” I’d like to be able to write clearer. “What’s stopping you?” I’d like to be able to figure a project out. “What’s stopping you?” I mean, let’s say Sophocles took eighteen years to write “Oedipus Rex.” It’s not under your control how quickly you complete “Oedipus Rex,” but it is under your control whether or not you give up. It doesn’t have to be calm and clear-eyed. You just have to not give up. –David Mamet
It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs. –Gerald Brenan
(tension between writing and laziness) There is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express. –Samuel Beckett
The 1984 Pepperdine Staley lecturer said, “I’d rather write than talk.” I agreed, but I hadn’t reached the stage where I’d rather write than read. –Richard Lynn
(advice to those with writer’s block) You’re not meant to be doing this. Plenty more where you came from. –Gore Vidal
I walk a circuit around town, …, waiting for inspiration. It doesn’t happen. This is because any writer who waits for inspiration is being an ass. Inspiration is achieved in humans by effort, a pumping of thoracic bellows—you have to breathe for yourself. No one will breathe for you. –Paul Collins
Here in
[T]truth is that most people who want to write do not, in fact, write, and many writers don't write, though they plan to and do some research and talk about writing, they don't sit down and do the work. Writer's block is the result of misjudging your own talent. If you imagine you're a Great Novelist and you sit down and can't write the great novel, it means that you're not who you thought you were. –Garrison Keillor
The truth, young people, is that writing is no more difficult than building a house, and the only good reason to complain is to discourage younger and more talented writers from climbing on the gravy train and pushing you off. –Garrison Keillor
Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. –E. L. Doctorow
I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer's block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don't. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done. --Barbara Kingsolver
Gay Talese described a memo he once sent himself: “Do I have ‘Writer’s Block’? No, you’re not suffering from ‘Writer’s Block,’ you’re just showing good judgment in not publishing anything at this time. Your demonstrating concern for readers in not burdening them with bad writing. … There should be a National Book Award given annually to certain writers for NOT WRITING.”
I write anywhere, anytime. I don’t need a space or a place. I just need an idea. I write when an idea strikes. If I’m not near a computer, I find any scrap of paper I can get my hands on. The object is to capture the idea the moment it pops into your mind. You will never remember it later. … I write from my own experience. I don’t need research statistics to back up a thought or a concept. Either it happened to me or I believe it to be true, based on my personal experience. Statistics lie. I don’t. … I rely on spell-check and keep on writing until I complete the thought. I never stop writing to fix something until the thought I’m writing is complete. Spelling and writing are mutually exclusive. If you stop to spell, you lose momentum. You can always check your spelling. You cannot always retain the flow or thought. –Jeffrey Gitomer
