Writing Quotes
The page is led by Shakespeare, then William Zinsser, the author of On Writing Well, followed by Horace and Orwell. Three old sources are worth knowing: Bacon’s Meditationes Sacræ (1597) says reading makes a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man; Thoreau’s journal for 1838 says it is vain to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live; and Horace’s Ars Poetica is the source for the idea that the writer wins by mixing profit with pleasure.
“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then for your friends, then for money” is credited to Virginia Woolf and flagged misattributed. The notes quote an anecdote from a Tyrol coffee-house in which someone else says something similar. Two more flagged lines are credited to Cicero and to Menander.
Writing a book is like masturbation, and making a movie is like an orgy.
If I cared about what you thought, I'd be writing for National Geographic or something.
I have learned more from Ezra Pound about writing than from anyone else.
In the case of a writer like Musil writing is often a graceful act,like a silvery fish leaping.
Who says that Adam didn’t write and hand down writings to Noah who brought them on board the ark?
There are no indecipherable writings, any writing system produced by man can be read by man.
When I’m writing, I can see myself in all of the characters I write.
For those who wish to write, the craft of writing is a life-long journey.