100 Quotes About Writing Advice

Writing is a form of expression that can be used to communicate and tell stories. However, for some, writing isn't the easiest thing to do. We have gathered a great selection of interesting and inspiring quotes from famous authors about writing.

All you have to do is write one true sentence....
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All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. Ernest Hemingway
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I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.).. 'I spoke to three scholars, ' [the character says 'at last.']. .two of them said that, after death, the [sic (misprint, fault of the publisher)] just go to Paradise. The third one, though, told me to consult some verses from the Koran. [end quote]'. .I can see that he's excited. [narrator]'. .Now I have many positive things to say about Coelho: He is respectable, inspiring as a man, a truth-seeker, and an appealing writer; but one should hesitate to call him a 'literary' writer based on this quote. A 'literary' author knows that a character's excitement should be 'shown' in his or her dialogue and not in the narrator's commentary on it. Advice for Coelho: Remove the 'I can see that he's excited' sentence and show his excitement in the phrasing of his quote.( Now, in defense of Coelho, I am firmly of the opinion, having myself written plenty of prose that is flawed, that a novelist should be forgiven for slipping here and there.) Lastly, it appears that a belief in reincarnation is of great interest to Mr. Coelho. . Just think! He is a man who has achieved, (as Leonard Cohen would call it), 'a remote human possibility.' He has won lots of fame and tons of money. And yet, how his preoccupation with reincarnation–none other than an interest in being born again as somebody else–suggests that he is not happy!. Roman Payne
Every wound is a word.
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Every wound is a word. Lailah Gifty Akita
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No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can't put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better. Erin Bow
Only something extremely dire and disabling will ever stop a...
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Only something extremely dire and disabling will ever stop a real writer from writing. Retirement is never an option. Warren Adler
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Being a writer all boils down to this: It's you, in a chair, staring at a page. And you're either going to stay in that chair until words are written, or you're going to give up and walk away. The great writers have to fight for their words. They have to choose to write, choose words over distractions, and their characters over their friends. Great writers can be lonely, exhausted souls. But through our characters, we live. Alessandra Torre
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When I met a truly beautiful girl, I would tell her that if she spent the night with me, I would write a novel or a story about her. This usually worked; and if her name was to be in the title of the story, it almost always worked. Then, later, when we'd passed a night of delicious love-making together, after she’d gone and I’d felt that feeling of happiness mixed with sorrow, I sometimes would write a book or story about her. Sometimes her character, her way about herself, her love-making, it sometimes marked me so heavily that I couldn't go on in life and be happy unless I wrote a book or a story about that woman, the happy and sad memory of that woman. That was the only way to keep her, and to say goodbye to her without her ever leaving. Roman Payne
Some writers write to forget. Some forget to write.
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Some writers write to forget. Some forget to write. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
One should write only those books from whose absence one...
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One should write only those books from whose absence one suffers. In short: the ones you want on your own desk. Marina Tsvetaeva
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If you ask a twenty-one-year-old poet whose poetry he likes, he might say, unblushing, "Nobody's, " In his youth, he has not yet understood that poets like poetry, and novelists like novels; he himself likes only the role, the thought of himself in a hat. Annie Dillard
Write what should not be forgotten.
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Write what should not be forgotten. Isabel Allende
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Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird. . Anne Lamott
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If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act–truth is always subversive. Anne Lamott
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Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. Neil Gaiman
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Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of. Anne Lamott
You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit...
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You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page. Jodi Picoult
You can only write by putting words on a paper...
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You can only write by putting words on a paper one at a time. Sandra Brown
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Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn’t work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they’re done they’re done. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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10 Steps to Becoming a Better WriterWrite.Write more. Write even more. Write even more than that. Write when you don’t want to. Write when you do. Write when you have something to say. Write when you don’t. Write every day. Keep writing. Brian Clark
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Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him. . William Faulkner
Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and...
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Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and told him I had finished. “Good for you, ” he said without looking up. “Start the next one today. Steven Pressfield
Go where the pain is, go where the pleasure is.
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Go where the pain is, go where the pleasure is. Anne Rice
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Destroy your life; then put it back together. You'll get great material, meet some fascinating characters and — side benefit — the skills you develop will give you greater compassion, insight and range with the people you create on the page — or run into off of it. Jerry Stahl
Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel...
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Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when if feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position. Stephen King
She thought a writer should work harder writing a book...
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She thought a writer should work harder writing a book than she did reading it. Jeffrey Eugenides
There is a ruthlessness to the creative act. It often...
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There is a ruthlessness to the creative act. It often involves a betrayal of the status quo. Alan Watt
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Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in. .. the edit.", The Guardian, 20 February 2010] Will Self
Don’t start right off writing the ‘Great American Novel’, that's...
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Don’t start right off writing the ‘Great American Novel’, that's too much pressure and you'll get disappointed; start with porn, it’s fun and a good way to get your feet wet. Scavola
Writing starts with living.– Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity...
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Writing starts with living.– Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing L.L. Barkat
To be a successful fiction writer you have to write...
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To be a successful fiction writer you have to write well, write a lot … and let ‘em know you’ve written it! Then rinse and repeat. Gerard De Marigny
We will need to find people who will provide a...
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We will need to find people who will provide a safe writing space for us, where criticism comes late and love and delight come early.–from Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing L.L. Barkat
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Fiction---good fiction, anyway---is dream made flesh, given purpose and drive, and set on a quest to show us the best in us and to give us the power and the tools to dream beyond reality's 'merely good enough' to a vision of what is truly great...and then to give us the stories of men and women of character who in turn inspire those of us who dare to reach for the truly great within ourselves. T H A T is why you write fiction. Holly Lisle
I'm writing. The pages are starting to stack up. My...
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I'm writing. The pages are starting to stack up. My morale is improving the more I feel like a writer. Neil Gaiman
Be prepared to work hard to be a writer.
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Be prepared to work hard to be a writer. Sandra Brown
It's been my experience that most writers don't talk about...
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It's been my experience that most writers don't talk about their craft--they just do it Alfred Lansing
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The internet is killing the art of writing. The big "publish" button begs you to publish even before you go back and make one single edit, and as if this was not enough, you have instant readers who praise your writing skills! - Bangambiki Habyarimana
Let your story grow. Let it surprise you, and it...
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Let your story grow. Let it surprise you, and it will certainly surprise your readers. M. Kirin
I’ve always loved the night, when everyone else is asleep...
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I’ve always loved the night, when everyone else is asleep and the world is all mine. It’s quiet and dark–the perfect time for creativity. Jonathan Harnisch
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... The Book is more important than your plans for it. You have to go with what works for The Book ~ if your ideas appear hollow or forced when they are put on paper, chop them, erase them, pulverise them and start again. Don't whine when things are not going your way, because they are going the right way for The Book, which is more important. The show must go on, and so must The Book. E.a. Bucchianeri
Writing a book is a blood sport. If it doesn't...
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Writing a book is a blood sport. If it doesn't hurt when you're done, you're probably doing something wrong. Kevis Hendrickson
Writing starts with living.
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Writing starts with living. L.L. Barkat
Speed is not always a constituent to great work, the...
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Speed is not always a constituent to great work, the process of creation should be given time and thought. E.a. Bucchianeri
You can only write well , what you have lived.
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You can only write well , what you have lived. Lailah Gifty Akita
Education is a cycle of reading, thinking and writing.
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Education is a cycle of reading, thinking and writing. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Max sent Scottie some literary advice, the same dictum he gave every college student who called on him. He stressed the importance of a liberal arts education but urged her to avoid all courses in writing. "Everyone has to find her own way of writing, " he wrote Scottie, "and the source of finding it is largely out of literature. A. Scott Berg
It can be done. It will be done.
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It can be done. It will be done. Lailah Gifty Akita
When people shine a little light on their monster, we...
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When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are. Anne Lamott
Manuscript rejections might tempt you to quit writing or querying....
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Manuscript rejections might tempt you to quit writing or querying. Don't. T.N. Suarez
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There are some writers who sweep us along so strongly in their current of energy-- Normal mailer, Tom Wolfe, Toni Morrison, William F. Buckley, Jr., Hunter Thompson, David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers--that we assume that when they go to work the words just flow. Nobody thinks of the effort they made every morning to turn on the switch. You also have to turn on the switch. Nobody is going to do it for you. William Zinsser
I don't imagine book elitists as my audience when writing....
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I don't imagine book elitists as my audience when writing. I dream about teachers, morticians and garbage men instead. Justin Alcala
Believe in yourself and start achieving your dream. It waits...
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Believe in yourself and start achieving your dream. It waits for you on the other side of the publish button. Dan Alatorre
Honesty makes stories real and characters memorable. From there, taking...
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Honesty makes stories real and characters memorable. From there, taking them to where they need to go will be all the development they need. Dan Alatorre
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I take the rawest, realest moments in anyone’s life and I open them up and lay them bare. The innocence of a five year old child, the awkwardness of a teenager’s first sexual encounter, the heartbreak of longing for a relationship you can’t have, confronting the possibility of the death of your newborn child, whatever it is, you open your soul and put it out there and dare the world to read it, ready to have them stomp on you and laugh, but ready to do it again the next day. You have to put yourself out there as a writer, you can’t play it safe. Great writing isn’t safe. . Dan Alatorre
Writing is like a lump of coal. Put it under...
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Writing is like a lump of coal. Put it under enough pressure and polish it enough and you might just end up with a diamond. Otherwise, you can burn it to keep warm. A.J. Dalton
The art of writing involves making as many cups of...
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The art of writing involves making as many cups of tea as you can in the time available for writing. Then adding extra time for writing... Alan Dapre
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Hypocrisy is our friend. Power structures have to pretend to hold values in order to win the loyalty of at least some of society. We can use the gap between those professed values and reality to move people to try to change the reality towards the values. Justin Podur
Writing is not a hobby. It's the only way I...
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Writing is not a hobby. It's the only way I get to shut up the demons in my head. Mark Maish
We write to strengthen our soul and the spirit of...
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We write to strengthen our soul and the spirit of other souls. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Be a good reader first, if you wish to become a good writer. Pawan Mishra
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All forms of art are parallel expressions. Writing is not unlike painting or other artistic endeavors. Each artistic endeavor is an expression of the mystery of the world. The job of the artist is to deepen that mystery, express reverence for the mystery of life, and explore the enigmatic aspects of human nature. Kilroy J. Oldster
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Some artists benefit less from being interviewed than they do from being left alone. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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For a writer it was perhaps most important not to write, but to read. Read as much as you can because in so doing you won't lose yourselves, become unoriginal, what happens is the opposite, by doing this you'll find yourselves. The more you read, the better. Unknown
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A writer gets to live yet another life every time she creates a new story. Pawan Mishra
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Writing a story is like going on a date–you will spoil it if you aren't living in the moment. Pawan Mishra
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Tell a story in lesser and simpler words. Pawan Mishra
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Don’t break the rules when you haven’t fully figured them out yet. Pawan Mishra
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Dreams are good at playing with your memory. They love leaving no trace behind and hate to show up once again in the morning. Pawan Mishra
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The good writing ideas don’t have to be about political turmoil, mass killings, capitalism, racism, injustice, etc. Find that one idea that has deep roots in your heart. Pawan Mishra
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Create a world in front of your readers where they can taste, smell, touch, hear, see, and move. Else they are likely going to move on to another book. Pawan Mishra
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A writer can do without food for a few hours, but not without the sight of books. Pawan Mishra
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Turn those deep feelings and obsessions of your heart into captivating pieces of literature. Pawan Mishra
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Ideas either age like fine wine or rot like potatoes over time. Pawan Mishra
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If you are a singer, you must sing. If you are a dancer, you must dance. If you are a writer, you must write. Don’t suffocate your heart. Pawan Mishra
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As you become a better writer, the writing becomes more difficult. You toil harder to tell a story in a lesser number of words. Pawan Mishra
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Don’t interrupt when your characters take a flight of their own. Pawan Mishra
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Cliches are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases. Pawan Mishra
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If you think there is no time to write now, there would never be. Pawan Mishra
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If certain aspect needs to be inconsistent, it must better be consistently inconsistent throughout the story. Pawan Mishra
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I used to be afraid about what people might say or think after reading what I had written. I am not afraid anymore, because when I write, I am not trying to prove anything to anyone, I am just expressing myself and my opinions. It’s ok if my opinions are different from those of the reader, each of us can have his own opinions. So writing is like talking, if you are afraid of writing, you may end up being afraid of talking. Bangambiki Habyarimana
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I am not a supporter of burning books; but like poison, some books should be kept away from simple minds who can't take in the strong content they provide Bangambiki Habyarimana
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All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond. The good news is that the acts of searching and gathering always expand the number of usable words. Roy Peter Clark
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One author said "I write because I want to live a footprint in the sands of history.” It's hard to live a footprint in the sands of history when giants are passing through the same sands unless you are one of the giants Bangambiki Habyarimana
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The written word is the greatest sacred documentation. Lailah Gifty Akita
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The written word is greatest sacred documentation. Lailah Gifty Akita
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It takes persistent practice to be skilful in the act. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Lord I thank you for the gift of breath, eyes to see, ears to hear, tongue to taste, nose to smell; mouth to speak, face to smile, voice to sing, body to dance, legs to walk, mind to think and hands to write. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Pound it out, get it done, write every day. No excuses. Kerouac said you can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club. Damn straight. You’ll sleep a lot better getting your word count in than another quick Twitter check or keeping up to date on the Kardashians. Dan Alatorre
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You have to put yourself out there as a writer, you can’t play it safe. Dan Alatorre
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In order to protect their good names for posterity, many writers never wrote what they thought or the truth as it stood. That's why truth still lies hidden in matters of power, sex and religion. No wonder they chose to do so, many who dared paid with their heads Bangambiki Habyarimana
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I know, not everyone will like what I write, but writing is not about trying to please everybody. E.a. Bucchianeri
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Keep being bold on the page, and in life, and people cannot ignore you forever. Don Roff
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You will have the grace of writing, when you boldly begin to write your first sentences. Lailah Gifty Akita
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You ought to write down the glow of thoughts as it’s ignites. Lailah Gifty Akita
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There is nothing better than expressions in words. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Thankfully existing only in SMALL pockets within our discipline, is “intellectual” snobbery. It’s a hushed but ugly truth that people are made to feel not worthy to be among a certain set — didn’t attend the right school or don’t have the requisite abbreviations to follow their name. I know what that feels like. Good thing I'm pigheaded, have a bigger vision and committed to my craft, or I would’ve succumbed to it long ago. That is why when I meet an emerging writer who’s serious about developing their craft, I try to encourage them as much as I can. I say IGNORE the highbrow cliques and prove your mettle by growing, accepting balanced feedback and most of all, creating work that will stand the test of time. Period. . Sandra Sealy
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It's all mine, it's all sacred. Coco J. Ginger
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Every beginner possesses a great potential to be an expert in his or her chosen field. Lailah Gifty Akita
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[Speaking about writing her first novel] You have to be passionate enough about it and I was. Kristyn Van Cleave
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I write to shed my sacred sorrows. Lailah Gifty Akita
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You are learning to be an expert. Lailah Gifty Akita