I love the craft of writing.  It can be bliss and it can be hell, but it’s always enlivening.  I also love reading what other writers – both famous and less so – have to say about writing, because it reminds me that I am not in this alone and I’m certainly not the first one to experience any particular feeling about it.  Their thoughts can be particularly helpful refocusing me when I feel like I’m slogging through hell.  So, I sat down to make a list of some of my favorite quotes about writing.  Twenty-five seemed like about the right number of quotes to be impactful without trying to be an exhaustive list of perspectives offered on the subject.  I wanted this to be something I could come back to later when I was looking for motivation and inspiration, and hoped that others might dig it, too.  So, why are there 32?  Because I winnowed it down that far and couldn’t bear to part with any more of them.  So, here they are, 32 awesome quotes about writing to motivate and inspire.  Enjoy! 

“A word after a word after a word is power.” 
-Margaret Atwood

“Ideas are like rabbits.  You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” 
-John Steinbeck

“Understand that there is a difference between wanting to write and wanting to be a writer, and if you don’t do the first, you aren’t the second.” 
-Alexi Zentner

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” 
-Isaac Asimov

“There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
-Ernest Hemingway

“Nothing matters but the writing.  There has been nothing else worthwhile… a stain upon the silence.”
-Samuel Beckett

“You fail only if you stop writing.”
-Ray Bradbury

“Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing.  What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.” 
-Natalie Goldberg

“Write what should not be forgotten.”
-Isabel Allende

“My ideas usually come not at my desk writing, but in the midst of living.” 
-Anais Nin

“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:  1. What am I trying to say?  2. What words will express it?  3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?  4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?”
-George Orwell

“For me, writing a novel is like having a dream.  Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I’m still awake.  I can continue yesterday’s dream today, something you can’t normally do in everyday life.” 
-Haruki Murakami

“Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.” 
-Hermann Hesse

“I learn as much by writing as by reading.” 
-Lord Acton

“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make.” 
-Truman Capote

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” 
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”
-Gustave Flaubert

“Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” 
-Gloria Steinem

“For me, life is writing and I can do it anywhere.  It doesn’t matter where I am.  I listen.  I write.  I live.” 
-Maynard James Keenan

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” 
-E.L. Doctorow

“Don’t worry about trying to please or impress; focus that energy instead on trying to be clear.”
-Ted Thompson

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.” 
-Graham Greene

“Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are.  The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences.  In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.” 
-Meg Rosoff

“He asked, ‘What makes a man a writer?’  ‘Well,’ I said, ‘it’s simple.  You either get it down on paper, or jump off a bridge.’” 
-Charles Bukowski

“Keep writing.  Try to do a little bit every day, even if the result looks like crap.  Getting from page four to page five is more important than spending three weeks getting page four perfect.” 
-Alan Dean Foster

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story.  You never quite know where they’ll take you.” 
-Beatrix Potter

“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” 
-Albert Camus

“I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.” 
-J. K. Rowling

“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”
-Neil Gaiman

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” 
-Ray Bradbury

“I do not wish to comment on the work; if it does not speak for itself, it is a failure.” 
-George Orwell

“Writers write.” 
-Jill McDonough

Do you have a favorite quote about writing that I didn’t include?  Add it in the comments.  Heck, if you’re feeling inspired, add your own unique perspective on the subject!  I’d love to know your thoughts.