Quotes on Writing, from Favorite Books and Authors

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Quotes from Books

From Louisa May Alcott's Little Women

"You can do better than this, Jo. Aim at the highest, and never mind the money." -- Mr. March, Jo's father.

Little notice was taken of her stories, but they found a market, and encouraged by this fact, she resolved to make a bold stroke for fame and fortune. Having copied her novel for the fourth time, read it to all her confidential friends, and submitted it with fear and trembling to three publishers, she at last disposed of it, on condition that she would cut it down by one third, and omit all the parts which she particularly admired.

"Now I must either bundle it back into my tin kitchen to mold, pay for printing it myself, or chop it up to suit purchasers and get what I can for it. Fame is more convenient, so I wish to take the sense of the meeting on this important subject," said Jo, calling a family council.

"Don't spoil your book, my girl, for there is more in it than you know, and the idea is well worked out. Let it wait and ripen," was her father's advice.

"I'm so fond of writing, I should go spinning on forever if motives of economy didn't stop me." -- Jo March

"Why don't you write? That always used to make you happy," said her mother once, when the desponding fit overshadowed Jo.

"I've no heart to write, and if I had, nobody cares for my things."

"We do. Write something for us, and never mind the rest of the world. Try it, dear, I'm sure it would do you good, and please us very much."

"I don't understand it. What can there be in a simple little story like that to make people praise it so? she said, quite bewildered."

"There is truth in it, Jo, that's the secret; humor and pathos make it alive, and you have found your style at last. You wrote with no thought of fame or money, and put your heart into it, my daughter; you have had the bitter, now comes the sweet. Do your best, and grow as happy as we are in your success."

Quotes from Authors

If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away. ~ Victor Hugo

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ~ Ray Bradbury

Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man. ~ Aristotle

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~ Anton Chekhov (A perfect example of "show, don't tell.")

How vain it is to sit down to writer when you have not stood up to live. ~ Henry David Thoreau