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Once we reject lyricism, to blacken a page becomes an ordeal: what's the use of writing in order to say exactly what we had to say?

— Emil Cioran The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

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Writing

More quotes by Emil Cioran

The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

He who has never envied the vegetable has missed the human drama.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

Love, a tacit agreement between two unhappy parties to overestimate each other.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

There is only this swarm of dying creatures stricken with longevity, all the more hateful in that they are so good at organizing their agony.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

All Emil Cioran quotes →

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”

Suman Pokhrel

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

Robert Benchley

Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.

William Wordsworth Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Emil Cioran (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.