All Things Writerly: 10 More Quotes from 10 Different Folks

By Jeff Hill Features 01/12/2014

So the last batch of writer quotes went over well and I thought it was about time to spread some more inspiration. I think we could all learn a lesson or two from these great people. Here’s what they had to say:

1. “Art is about discovery and finding your way. To do either, you must first become lost. Getting lost is the wind-up to real breakthroughs.”

– Kaare Andrews

2. “Writing is an extreme privilege, but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone.”

– Amy Tan

3. “I try to leave out the parts that people skip.”

– Elmore Leonard

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

– Anton Chekhov

5. “The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”

– Agatha Christie

6. “A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down.”

– Edna St. Vincent Millay

7. “Journalism is just a gun. It’s only got one bullet in it, but if you aim right, that’s all you need. Aim it right and you can block a kneecap off the world.”

– Warren Ellis

8. “If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.”

– Victor Hugo

9. “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.”

– Herman Melville

10. “First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!”

– Ray Bradbury

Alrighty. Well, that’ll about do it for this segment of All Things Writerly. Until next time, friends. But in the meantime, let’s remember this simple mantra: Don’t suck. Do your best. And in the end, maybe that’ll be enough.

Jeff Hill / About Author

Jeff Hill is a moderately reformed frat boy turned writer who left teaching after 10 years to split his time between Nebraska and New York and focus on his writing career. His work has appeared in dozens of publications and his mom has a binder full of copies for any doubters. He is the Chief Creative Officer of Comic Booked and is currently pitching the novels Dead Facebook Friends and Dead Week to agents in New York and Los Angeles. Jeff is a graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a regular participant of the Sarah Lawrence College Summer Seminar for Writers, and a past faculty member of the Writer’s Hotel. He can be found on both Twitter and Patreon as jeffhillwriter.