Writer Quotes

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. (Thomas Mann)
The time of illusion, then, is the beautiful moment of passion; it represents the artistic zone in which the poet or romance writer ought to be free to do the very best that he can. View quote
Lafcadio Hearn
The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true. View quote
John Steinbeck
Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull. View quote
Rod Serling
Until the 20th century it was generally assumed that a writer had said what he had to say in his works. View quote
John Updike
Those who prefer their English sloppy have only themselves to thank if the advertisement writer uses his mastery of the vocabulary and syntax to mislead their weak minds. View quote
Dorothy L. Sayers
It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps. View quote
Robert Benchley
Every writer wants to be believed. But every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic. View quote
John le Carré
I don't think you can write according to a set of rules and laws; every writer is so different. View quote
Kiran Desai
A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns. (P. L. Travers)
I'm a writer first and a woman after. View quote
Katherine Mansfield
If I were a writer, how I would enjoy being told the novel is dead. How liberating to work in the margins, outside a central perception. You are the ghoul of literature. Lovely. View quote
Don DeLillo
For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. View quote
E. B. White
A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable. View quote
John Steinbeck
An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs. View quote
Christopher Hampton
All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac. View quote
Saul Bellow
The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money. (Karl Marx)
The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. View quote
Robert Frost
I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme. View quote
Henry James