Weighing in with our favorite writing quotes

• Terry Ambrose:

  Elmore Leonard had some great writing quotes that focused on keeping a story engaging and concise—I especially like, Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. But my actual favorite writing quote is screenwriter William Goldman, who advised, Jump in late, leave early.  There are plenty of alternative phrasings, but the bottom line is that, just like Leonard’s advice, Goldman meant to move the story forward quickly.

• Nancy J. Cohen:

  Throw a lot of spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. A critique partner told me this when I wasn’t sure which genre to write. I tried several books until one finally sold, then I wrote more in that direction. Sometimes you have to experiment to see what type of fiction works best for you. This goes for marketing, too. If you’re doing better in one genre than another, does it pay to continue the one that’s less popular?

• Debra H. Goldstein:

  Because it is how I view the process of an author maturing and writing, my favorite quote comes from Lillian Hellman’s PENTIMENTO. Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman’s dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter “repented,” changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again. 

• Cheryl Hollon:

  If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. – Stephen King. This one hits me right in the inspiration gene every time I see it. 

• Diane A.S. Stuckart:

  I stumbled across this quote from the late, great Ruth Rendell: I get a lot of letters from people. They say: ‘I want to be a writer. What should I do?’ I tell them to stop writing to me and get on with it. Basic advice, yes, but as a beginning author it’s easy to get stuck while trying to learn the proper “how” of writing rather than simply jumping in and getting words on the page. 

• Maggie Toussaint:

  I really like this quote: your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way, from Ray Bradbury. This speaks to the heart of the matter. If you stress about the mechanics of writing instead of opening up and letting the words flow, you won’t get much writing done. This is true in any genre of writing.

• Lois Winston

  Easy reading is damn hard writing, courtesy of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It’s my favorite because it’s so true.