Writing is work. It is a blessing and a curse; a calling and a haunting. It’s incredibly rewarding, and at the same time, it’s hard.
As an author, you get stuck. You might want to quit, give up and find a new job – discover an easier passion.
Don’t.
All authors – all people, for that matter – encounter times in their lives and careers where things don’t go their way and they lose their drive to continue. When I encounter times like these, I find inspiration in the words of authors and writers I admire. Here are some of my favorite quotes from authors of various genres:
Words are a lens to focus one’s mind. – Ayn Rand
Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer. – Barbara Kingsolver
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. – Ernest Hemingway
The ability of writer to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power. – Toni Morrison
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
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. – Herman Melville
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed. – Ray Bradbury
You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write. – Saul Bellow
To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write. – Gertrude Stein
First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him! – Ray Bradbury
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 its own reward. – Henry Miller
Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There are two kinds of writer: those that make you think, and those that make you wonder. – Brian Aldiss
What’s your favorite inspirational quote about writing?
One of my favorites is “You’re never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis