Writing And Reading Quotes

• If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (1950). “Essays”, Ayer Company Pub

  64 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Life, Friendship

  Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.28, St. Martin's Press

  117 Copy quote

  Show source

• Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  79 Copy quote

• If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

  Toni Morrison

  Inspirational, Happiness, Attitude

  135 Copy quote

• Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

  Joseph Addison

  Inspirational, Education, Book

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1837). “The Tatler: With Notes and a General Index ; Complete in One Volume”, p.270

  80 Copy quote

  Show source

• I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.

  Stephen King

  Writing, Character, Trying

  7 Copy quote

• If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Walden ch. 18 (1854)

  112 Copy quote

  Show source

• Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Reading, Book, Beer

  1849 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,'Sunday'.

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Witty, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1001, Wordsworth Editions

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Anger, Reading

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 19 (1891)

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.

  C. J. Cherryh

  Writing, Long, Garbage

  48 Copy quote

• Books had instant replay long before televised sports.

  Bernard Williams

  Sports, Book, Reading

  9 Copy quote

• I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

  Oscar Wilde

  Morning, Writing, Perfection

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.225, Wordsworth Editions

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.

  Stephen King

  Kings, Writing, Interesting

  Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”, p.277, Simon and Schuster

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

  Dr. Seuss

  Life, Beautiful, Funny Inspirational

  24 Copy quote

• To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Book, Reading

  146 Copy quote

• There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

  Joseph Brodsky

  Education, Reading, Book

  "The Balancing Act: Mastering the Competing Demands of Leadership". Book by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler and Ron McMillan, 1996.

  62 Copy quote

  Show source

• Easy reading is damn hard writing.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Powerful, Reading, Writing

  27 Copy quote

• A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.

  Richard Bach

  Perseverance, Writing, Editing

  Richard Bach (2012). “A Gift of Wings”, p.9, Dell

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The road to Hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Dog, Writing, Sisterhood

  Ernest Hemingway (2016). “The Sun Also Rises”, p.37, Hamilton Books

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.

  Willa Cather

  Writing, Age, Fifteen

  Quoted in Rene¤ Rapin Willa Cather (1930).

  33 Copy quote

  Show source

• Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

  John W. Campbell

  Home, Editors, Closets

  13 Copy quote

• Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, Effort, Needs

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.25, Anchor

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.

  Gloria Steinem

  Writing, Should, Feels

  16 Copy quote

• The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wisdom, Writing, Procrastination

  Statement on April 14, 1775. "Life of Samuel Johnson". Book by James Boswell. Volume II, 1791.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source