31 Inspiring Writing Quotes from Famous Authors to Push You to be a Better Writer

Writing can be a solitary and demanding task. However, it is also one of the most rewarding things you can do.

You are able to put your thoughts and feelings into writing in order to entertain or educate others.

With the right practice, writing can be an immensely gratifying experience.

However, all writers know that one of the hardest parts of writing is just getting started. Whether this is your first time making an effort in storytelling, or you’ve just finished a project and are trying to start a new one, an empty page can be intimidating at first.

These moments can be frustrating, but they are completely normal. They can make you feel like giving up.

In these moments, it’s so important to hear from successful creatives who have been in your shoes and know exactly how you feel.

To combat moments of doubt, I’ve compiled a list of inspiring quotes about writing from famous authors that can push you to be a better writer.

Inspiring Writing Quotes from Famous Authors

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” – Stephen King

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” – Isaac Asimov

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” – William Faulkner

“Writing is a solitary act, the writer alone in a room, confronting a blank sheet of paper. Writing is also a social act. Writers read other writers, talk to other writers, teach other writers. Writers need audiences and critics; they need readers. Writing without these elements is not writing at all.” – Annie Dillard

“In the end, everything you write will be wrong. What you must do is write it anyway.” – Anne Lamott

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” – Jack Kerouac

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Start before you’re ready.” – Steven Pressfield

“First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!” – Ray Bradbury

“Write something that’s worth fighting over. Because that’s how you change things. That’s how you create art.” – Jeff Goins

“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” – Natalie Goldberg

“You may not always write well, but you can edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” – Jodi Picoult

“It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” – Robert Benchley

“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” – William Faulkner

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” – Franz Kafka

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.” – Terry Pratchett

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” – Octavia E. Butler

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” – Virginia Woolf

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams

“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.” – George Orwell

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” – Somerset Maugham

“Tears are words that need to be written.” – Paulo Coelho

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” – Richard Bach

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” – E. L. Doctorow

“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

“A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“Writers live twice.” -  Natalie Goldberg

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” – Ernest Hemingway

Conclusion

Passion, vocation, or avocation?

Only a handful of people can say their job is their passion and they are paid for it. A vast majority of the population has to work to make ends meet as the cost of living continues to rise. But does this mean that a career in writing is out of reach for most people?

It turns out that writing is one of the few careers where you can do what you love and make good money at it.

Not only are there jobs in journalism, copywriting, content marketing, and blogging but there are also opportunities in travel writing, creative writing, ghostwriting, fiction/non-fiction book publishing, and digital media content creation.

For some people, writing is a passion that they pursue no matter the medium. It can be a beautiful escape from the harsh realities of day-to-day life.

For others, it is a means to make money or to express themselves. The only thing that matters is that people are writing what they want to write about – not something for which they have been paid for it.

No matter what field you are in, writing is a powerful tool that can help you create something to share with the world.