“To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.”
Pearl S. Buck
A cornucopia of writerly wisdom to brighten your day and inspire you!
“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends.”
Helen Keller
“Write about winter in the summer. Describe Norway as Ibsen did, from a desk in Italy; describe Dublin as James Joyce did, from a desk in Paris. Willa Cather wrote her prairie novels in New York City, Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn in Hartford, Connecticut. Recently, scholars have learned that Walt Whitman rarely left his room.”
Annie Dillard
“Just now I can feel that little quivering of the pen which has always foreshadowed the happy delivery of a good book.”
Emile Zola
“None of the writing is easy, but I no longer refuse to do it for fear that I’ll fail to get it right. It can never be right, I know; it can only be done.”
Nancy Mairs
“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”
Willa Cather
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
Richard Bach
“The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what he saw in a plain way.”
John Ruskin
“I still read everything aloud. I have a fundamental conviction that if a sentence cannot be read aloud with sincerity, conviction, and communicable emphasis, it’s not a good sentence. Good writing requires good rhythms and good words.”
Richard Marius
“The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.”
Robert Frost
“I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true — hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.”
Ray Bradbury
May these words give our own words wings as we all write on!
