Timeless Advice on Writing: The Collected Wisdom of Great Writers

“One of the functions of art is to give people the words to know their own experience… Storytelling is a tool for knowing who we are and what we want.”

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in… you will interest other people.”

“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.”

“Don’t write at first for anyone but yourself.”

Mastering the essential complementarity of compassion and total objectivity.

“The first sign of disintegration — in a writer — is that the writing loses the unique stamp of his/her character, & loses its inner light.”

“In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.”

“At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you.”

“There is a great deal that either has to be given up or be taken away from you if you are going to succeed in writing a body of work.”

“To write well about the elegant world you have to know it and experience it to the depths of your being… what matters is not whether you love it or hate it, but only to be quite clear about your position regarding it.”

“Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write.”

“Never write more than two pages on any subject.”

“Sheer egoism… Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity.”

“A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.”

“Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.”

“The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.”

“You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.”

“As a writer you should not judge. You should understand.”

“You have to tell your own story simultaneously as you hear and respond to the stories of others.”

“It’s by writing… by stepping back a bit from the real thing to look at it, that we are most present.”