31 inspiring writing quotes
We picked 31 quotes so you can have one for every day of the month!
Use them for NANOWRIMO (with one extra).
Let us know your favorite or if you have a good one in the comments below!
Getting Started
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” - Mark Twain
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” -Robert Louis Stevenson
“It’s the job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.” -J.R.R. Tolkein
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” -Vincent Van Gogh
"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” -E.L. Doctorow
Failure and Perseverance
“Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.” -Salvador Dali
“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
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” -Richard Bach
“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” -Ella Fitzgerald
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.” -Robert Cormier
“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” -Mary Tyler Moore
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” -Samuel Beckett
“When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.” -Cynthia Heimel
How to Write Well
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” -W. Somerset Maugham
“I learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.” -Kendrick Lamar
“It is odd that we never question the feasibility of a football team practicing long hours for one game; yet in writing we rarely give ourselves the space for practice.” -Natalie Goldberg
“Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.” -Patricia Reilly Giff
“Writing is like any other sort of sport. In order for you to get better at it, you have to exercise the muscle.” -Jason Reynolds
Why We Write
“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” -Thomas Mann
“Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.” -Paulo Coelho
“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” -Gustave Flaubert
“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
“A word after a word after a word is power.” -Margaret Atwood
“No amount of money can replace the kind of happiness and satisfaction I derive out of writing.” -Sreenivasan
“Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.” -Wole Soyinka
“Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone.” -Amy Tan
“Who says that my dreams have to stay just my dreams?” -Ariel, The Little Mermaid
“Good writing will bring you to places you don’t even expect sometimes.” -James Gandolfini
“So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.” -Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” -Ray Bradbury
Let us know your favorite writing quotes by commenting below!
