My favorite quotes on Writing

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to read Maria Popova’s eclectic blog Brain Pickings. She brings extracts from the life of several eminent authors and it is truly a wholesome experience to read them.

A blog, in particular, enchanted me which consisted of timeless advice on writing, by those who have made it to the top echelons of writing. I have compiled the list for you so that you might benefit from it too 🙂

“One of the functions of art is to give people the words to know their own experience… Storytelling is a tool for knowing who we are and what we want.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
“Turn up for work. Discipline allows for creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom.” – Jeanette Winterson
“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.” – Jennifer Egan
“Don’t write at first for anyone but yourself.” – T.S. Eliot
“In the wholeheartedness of concentration, world and self begin to cohere. With that state comes an enlarging: of what may be known, what may be felt, what may be done.” – Jane Hirshfield
“In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.” – Stephen King
“At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you.” – Annie Dillard
“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while, the muse shows up, too.” – Isabel Allende
“Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand — but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.” – Zadie Smith
“It is in the movements of an emotional crisis that human beings reveal themselves most accurately.” – Anaïs Nin
“unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don’t do it.” – Charles Bukowski
“Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.” – James Baldwin
“Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.” – Schopenhauer