Seth Godin Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• The reason business writing is horrible is that people are afraid. Afraid to say what they mean, because they might be criticized for it. Afraid to be misunderstood, to be accused of saying what they didn't mean, because they might be criticized for it.

  Seth Godin

  Writing, Mean, People

• Don't waste time looking for a better pencil: learn to write better.

  Seth Godin

  Writing, Waste, Wasting Time

• The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later.

  Seth Godin

  Book, Writing, Years

  "Advice for authors". sethgodin.typepad.com. August 2, 2006.

• Writing a book is a tremendous experience. It pays off intellectually. It clarifies your thinking. It builds credibility. It is a living engine of marketing and idea spreading, working every day to deliver your message with authority. You should write one.

  Seth Godin

  Book, Writing, Thinking

• Here's the thing: The book that will most change your life is the book you write.

  Seth Godin

  Book, Writing, Inspire

• If you are afraid to write or edit or assemble or disassemble, you are merely a spectator. And you are trapped, trapped by the instructions of those you've chosen to follow. Twenty people in the field and eighty thousand in the stands. The spectators are the ones who paid to watch, but it's the player on the field who are truly alive.

  Seth Godin

  Motivational, Writing, Player

• If you're going to invest a valuable asset (like time), go ahead and make it productive. Use a postit or two, or some index cards or a highlighter. Not to write down stuff so you can forget it later, but to create marching orders. It's simple: if three weeks go by and you haven't taken action on what you've written down, you wasted your time.

  Seth Godin

  Business, Taken, Writing

• I was amplifying the negative at the expense of the positive, not to serve any useful function, not to make my writing better, but to destroy it. The lizard brain, so attuned to people laughing behind our backs, was on high alert for this sort of criticism and would do anything it could to stop me from writing again. I haven't sought out and read a review or a tweet since.

  Seth Godin

  Life, Work, Writing

• But this is a remarkable egg, an egg worth talking about, an egg worth crossing the street for, an egg worth writing about.

  Seth Godin

  Writing, Talking, Eggs

• Here's the truth you have to wrestle with: the reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is precisely why I can't tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there'd be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map. Don't you hate that? I love that there's no map.

  Seth Godin

  Art, Hate, Writing

  Seth Godin (2010). “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?”, p.141, Penguin

• The second person to write a story about a young boy and an escaped slave on the Mississippi wasn't a novelist, he was a typist.

  Seth Godin

  Writing, Boys, Novelists

  "The Importance of Going First". Persobal blog, sethgodin.typepad.com. July 19, 2012.

• I find that I have about six bloggable ideas a day. I also find that writing twice as long a post doesn't increase communication, it usually decreases it. And finally, I found that people get antsy if there are unread posts in their queue.

  Seth Godin

  Communication, Writing, Ideas

  "Interview: Seth Godin On How Often To Post To Your Blog". Interview with B.L. Ochman, January 12, 2009.

• The biggest takeaway for anyone seeking to write is this: don't go looking for the way other authors do their work. You won't find many who are consistent enough to copy, and there are enough variations in approach that it's obvious that it's not like hitting home runs or swinging a golf club. There isn't a standard approach, there's only what works for you (and what doesn't).

  Seth Godin

  Running, Home, Writing

• Learn. Ceaselessly. Learn to code, to write persuasively, to understand new technologies, to bring out the best in your team, to find underused resources and to spot patterns.

  Seth Godin

  Team, Writing, Technology

  Seth Godin (2013). “Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012”, p.233, Penguin UK

• If you have a book to write, write it. If you want to record an album, record it. No need to wait for someone in a cubicle halfway across the country to decide if you're worthy.

  Seth Godin

  Country, Book, Writing

• The resistance is the voice in your head telling you to use bullets in your PowerPoint slides...It’s the voice that tells you to leave controversial ideas out of the paper you’re writing, because the teacher won’t like them. The resistance pushes relentlessly for you to fit in.

  Seth Godin

  Teacher, Writing, Ideas

• I wonder why anyone would hesitate to be generous with their writing. I mean, if you really want to make a living, go to Wall Street and trade oil futures ... We're writers. We're doing something that is inherently a generous act. We're exposing ourselves to the muse and to the things that frighten us. Why do that if you're not willing to be generous? And paradoxically, almost ironically, it turns out that the more generous you are, the more money you make. But that's secondary. For me, the privilege of being generous is why I get to do this.

  Seth Godin

  Wall, Writing, Mean

• If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you've got. Just don't plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living.

  Seth Godin

  Art, Writing, Blogging

• Books work as an art form (and an economic one) because they are primarily the work of an individual.

  Seth Godin

  Art, Book, Writing

• I made a decision to write for my readers, not to try to find more readers for my writing.

  Seth Godin

  Writing, Decision, Trying

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