It’s a new year and, while last year’s issues linger on, we writers are ready to take on whatever else 2021 will hand us. After all, it’s life’s experiences that fuel us, inspire us and challenge us to pull out the best possible words in the best possible order and place them on the page.
At least, that is the theory. To underscore that concept and to keep you in a positive creative space, we’re sharing 10 quotes about the craft from 10 different writers. Energizing? A calorie-free fill-up, we hope. Inspiring? Probably. Challenging? We surely think so.
You be the judge.
What is a writer?
Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do.
Susan Sontag: A writer is someone who pays attention to the world.
John Updike: Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.
How does a writer work?
Anne Lamott: Very few writers know what they are doing until they’ve done it.
Anais Nin: The role of the writer is not to say what we all can say but what we are unable to say.
J. K. Rowling: Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.
Robert Frost: Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
Why be a writer?
Jorge Luis Borges: When writers die they become books, which is, after all, not too bad an incarnation.
Franz Kafka: A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.
Last word on writing
Stephen King: An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.
We expect that at least one of these intriguing quotes from writers might nestle next to your muse and help keep your pen filled with unstoppable ink. As the year unfolds, keep in touch. Let us celebrate your wins and soothe any scrapes or bruises that might come your way.
Thanks for sharing this Ruth. I identify with Susan Sontag’s view that a writer pays attention to the world, for that is what informs my writing.
That’s great, Ray. The world is our inspiration.
Very few writers know what they are doing until they’ve done it is going on my wall! Great quotes!
Thanks, Andrea. It’s the one that captured my attention first.
These are all inspiring quotes to remind us that writers are many voices.
Exactly, Donna. Different approaches to the same journey.
Thank you Ruth. Inspiring and good to pay attention to.
Exactly what we meant it to do, Linda. Thanks for your kind words. Here’s to a fulfilling 2021 for all creative souls.
I would add Gloria Steinem’s comment that writing is the only thing she does where she doesn’t feel she should be doing something else.
Thanks, Colin. That’s another beautiful quote and from a brilliant writer and thinker. I think we should make this January 10 on the 10th post an annual thing — so many more fine words about the craft and what it means will inspire us.