Saturday Soirée - Writing quotations

I would encourage any aspiring writer to write everyday even if for fifteen minutes. It builds discipline. I understand though, that even this might be almost impossible for some. In that case, carve out a specific time in your week, at least and give yourself over to writing. If it is your passion, once a week is the least you could or should do.

Nevertheless, modern day lifestyles can be crazy and if yours is, you may need a little help to kick start your writing session. By all means, seek out devises and implement your own rituals to inspire you to get the writing juices flowing.

Quotations about writing is one way to be inspired to write. Today I share with you just a few of my favorites. Some continue to inspire me to keep at it when I feel stuck or procrastination rears its ugly head. Others I hold dear because they mirror experiences I’ve had in my own writing career.

Below the list of quotes, I’ve included links to several websites where you can find inspiring quotations. Adopt the ones that speak to you and use them to ignite your mind and open your heart to joy of writing.

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.
It's the one and only thing you have to offer.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver

“Writing from the heart requires vision, and vision is beyond skill. Vision writers write what they want to write. This means they write about things that have moved them deeply. Such writing is not something that you can learn. For vision is a gift. But if you open your heart wide, the gift will be great.” ~ Cyn-Young Ahn

“There's one thing your writing must have to be any good at all. It must have you. Your soul, your self, your heart, your guts, your voice -- you must be on that page. In the end, you can't make the magic happen for your reader. You can only allow the miracle of 'being one with' to take place. So dare to be yourself. Dare to reveal yourself. Be honest, be open, be true...If you are, everything else will fall into place.” ~ Elizabeth Ayres

“One hasn't become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession. Writing has to be an obsession. It has to be something as organic, physiological and psychological as speaking or sleeping or eating.” ~ Niyi Osundare

“If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.” ~ Louis L’Amour

“Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.” ~ Bonnie Friedman

“If you wish to be a writer, write.” ~ Epictetus

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” ~ Natalie Goldberg

“Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.” ~ Catherine Drinker Bowen

“I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.” ~ Joyce Carol Oates

“I don’t think true writers ever write anything bad, not if we allow the heart and soul to be the writer of our words.” ~ Marilyn Mackenzie

“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.” ~ Gloria Steinem

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” ~ Cyril Connolly

Links to websites with writing quotes:.

Quotations Page

Wisdom Quotes

Quote Garden

P.S. We talk about using writing prompts.