Who better to describe the pain and beauty of writing than a writer? Here are some of my favorite quotes. Some of them are motivational. Others reveal the true nature of the craft of writing! Check back soon — I may add more. Feel free to make a suggestion for inclusion.

“A word after a word after a word is power.”
–Margaret Atwood

“I write to discover what I know.”
–Flannery O’Connor

“Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.”
― Hermann Hesse

“Half my life is an act of revision.”
—John Irving, author of The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” —Jodi Picoult

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louis L’Amour

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
— Anton Chekhov

“Stories can save us. …in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world.” — Tim O’Brien, “The Lives of the Dead”