Inspirational Writing Quotes

I picked these inspirational writing quotes for you, out of the thousands of writing quotes I've collected. Of course, what is inspirational is purely a subjective opinion, but I do hope they'll inspire you, encourage you and motivate you on this crazy, compelling, wonderful and arduous path of being a writer.

I have deliberately picked only quotes (for this section) which relate to the life of being a fiction writer. There are plenty of quotes on the craft of creative writing in the other pages in this section of the website (as well as sprinkled throughout the website as appropriate).

But please do visit the other writing quotes pages too - there is so much wisdom there too. Indeed, they are all inspirational writing quotes really!

The quotes:

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ~ Scott Adams
If you wait for inspiration, you're not a writer, but a waiter. ~ Anonymous
You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist. ~ Isaac Asimov
A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. ~ Richard Bach
You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however. ~ Richard Bach
Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long. ~ Leonard Bernstein
You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great. ~ Les Brown

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. ~ Ray Bradbury
Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up on rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. ~ Meg Chittenden
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. ~ Tom Clancy
Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. ~ Colette
An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one. ~ Charles Horton Cooley
Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. ~ Calvin Coolidge
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. ~ Robert Cormier
No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice -- your choice. ~ Beth Mende Conny
Books aren't written, they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it. ~ Michael Crichton

For me, writing is exploration; and most of the time, I'm surprised where the journey takes me. ~ Jack Dann
There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die. ~ Robertson Davies
I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. ~ Joan Didion
Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake. ~ E.L. Doctorow
Writing is turning one's worst moments into money. ~ J. P. Donleavy
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things. ~ Albert Einstein
No one put a gun to your head and ordered you to become a writer. One writes out of his own choice and must be prepared to take the rough spots along the road with a certain equanimity, though allowed some grinding of the teeth. ~ Stanley Ellin
It is never too late to be what you might have been. ~ George Elliot
Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. ~ T. . Eliot

People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it. ~ Harlan Ellison
If you wish to be a writer; write! ~ Epictetus (50-120) Greek philosopher.
At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance--that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be--curiosity--to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got it or not. ~ William Faulkner
Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. ~ William Feather
Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth... But amusing? Never. ~ Edna Ferber
You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living. ~ Gustave Flaubert
You can't say, I won't write today because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then� you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer. ~ Dorothy C. Fontana
Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~ Gene Fowler
Mere literary talent is common; what is rare is endurance, the continuing desire to work hard at writing. ~ Donald Hall
The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorn
The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. ~ Mary Heaton Vosse
The best way to become a writer is to go off and write. ~ Hemingway
Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat; long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning. ~ Hesiod
Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. ~ Napolean Hill

Never let inexperience get in the way of ambition. ~ Terry Josephson
[Writing is] tougher than Himalayan yak jerky in January. But, as any creative person will tell you, there are days when there's absolutely nothing sweeter than creating something from nothing. ~ Richard Krzemien
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end. ~ Ursula K. LeGuin
I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer. ~ Doris Lessing
It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write. ~ Sinclair Lewis
I see the notion of talent as quite irrelevant. I see instead perseverance, application, industry, assiduity, will, will, will, desire, desire, desire. ~ Gordon Lish
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. ~ Jack London
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than it be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. ~ Jack London
I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side. ~ Audre Lorde

I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this. ~ Cormac McCarthy
Just keep writing. Keep reading. If you are meant to be a writer, a storyteller, it�ll work itself out. You just keep feeding it your energy, and giving it that crucial chance to work itself out. By reading and writing. ~ Robin McKinley
The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it's going to. I know. It sucks. That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it's worth it. Even if you don't end up pulling it off, you'll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It's NOT doing it when you know you full well you HAD the opportunity- that hurts FAR more than any failure. ~ Hugh Macleod
Writing is its own reward. ~ Henry Miller
Almost anyone can become an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being. ~ A.A. Milne
Writing has made me rich--not in money but in a couple hundred characters out there, whose pursuits and anguish and triumphs I've shared. I am unspeakably grateful at the life I have come to lead. ~ Wright Morris
The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamouring to become visible. ~ Vladimir Nabakov
If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it. ~ Anais Nin

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. ~ Anais Nin
Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. ~ Sharon O'Brien
You must find your own quiet center of life, and write from that to the world. ~ Sarah Orne Jewett
One has to live a life that creates a writer. ~ Erno Paasilinna
It's always too early to quit. ~ Norman Vincent Peale
One extends one's limits only by exceeding them. ~ M. Scott Peck
The harder you work, the luckier you get. ~ Gary Player.
Write as often as possible, not with the idea at once of getting into print, but as if you were learning an instrument. ~ J B Priestley
Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money. ~ Jules Renard
The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~ Jules Renard
I get a lot of letters from people. They say "I want to be a writer. What should I do?" I tell them to stop writing to me and to get on with it. ~ Ruth Rendell

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it. ~ Leo Rosten
Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. ~ Marilyn vos Savant
Engrave this in your brain: EVERY WRITER GETS REJECTED. You will be no different. ~ John Scalzi
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. ~ Seneca (3 BC - 65 AD)
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them. ~ George Bernard Shaw
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. ~ Beverly Sills
A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. ~ Sidney Smith
We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. ~ William Somerset Maugham

I do not like to write - I like to have written. ~ Gloria Steinem
Whether or not you write well, write bravely ~ Bill Stout
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything. ~ Ivana Trump
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. ~ Mark Twain
God sells us all things at the price of the labour. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't have nerve enough to be homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

The only difference between a writer and someone who wants to be a writer is discipline. ~ Ayelet Waldman
Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks. ~ Dottie Walters
Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential. ~ Jessamyn West
I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all. ~ E. B. White
You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. ~ Phyllis Whitney
A man who wants time to read and write must let the grass grow long. ~ Sloan Wilson
You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing. ~ Gene Wolfe
Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing... the rest will follow. ~ Jane Yolen
If writing seems hard, it�s because it is hard. It�s one of the hardest things people do. ~ William Zinsser
There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you. ~ William Zinsser

Return from Inspirational Writing Quotes to Writing Quotes
Return from Inspirational Writing Quotes to Home