Writing Words Quotes

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.

It took me to about maybe 16, 17 or 18 or something to realise I was absolutely useless at everything else except for playing guitar and writing words

In good writing, words become one with things.

The idea of political content is irrelevant. Content is irrelevant. I always tell my students, "Never forget you're writing words! You know, word one, word two, word three, word four. The words have to be organized. Nothing else does."

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.

He that uses many words for explaining any subject, doth, like the cuttlefish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink.

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

For me, the intent in a song is to sing it. I compose songs, meaning I'm writing words to be set to music; I'm intending it to not be recited. I'm a singer-songwriter, and I'm a poet, and there really isn't a contradiction, at least for me.

To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement.

To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself...Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.

The translator ... Peculiar outcast, ghost in the world of literature, recreating in another form something already created, creating and not creating, writing words that are his own and not his own, writing a work not original to him, composing with utmost pains and without recognition of his pains or the fact that the composition really is his own.

I get drunk writing words. I don't drink or do drugs, but I get so carried away with writing that I get inebriated from it.

Once, lovers on faraway shores sat by candlelight and dipped ink to parchment, writing words that could not be erased. They took an evening to compose their thoughts, maybe the next evening as well.

It is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.

You can't be blocked if you just keep on writing words. Any words. People who get 'blocked' make the mistake of thinking they have to write good words.

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Here’s what I learned: First thing in the morning, before I have drowned myself in coffee, while I still have that sleepy brain I used to believe was useless — that is the best brain for creative writing. Words come pouring out easily while my head still feels as if it is full of ground fog, wrapped in flannel and gauze, and surrounded by a hive of humming, velvety sleep bees.

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.

Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.

The road to hell is paved with leeks and potatoes

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

The road to Hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs.

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.