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Writing and Publishing

Quotes from Great Writers: Learn, Grow, and Write

Great writers can teach us about writing and inspire us to write with excellence

Here are some of my favorite quotes from great writers and other famous people:

“Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” -Flannery O’Connor

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” -Muriel Rukeyser

“Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card.” -Marc Brown

“A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things.” -N. Scott Momaday

“If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction-and ultimately, without a major resolution.” -Jasper Fforde

“Never give up…No one knows what’s going to happen next.” -L. Frank Baum

“Not all those who wander are lost.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

“Humanity lives in its fiction.” -Blaise Cendrars

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” -A.A. Milne

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge, you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” -Kurt Vonnegut

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” -Herman Melville

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be.” -Abraham Maslow

“If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.” -Juan Ramon Jimenez

“One day I was speeding along at the typewriter, and my daughter—who was a child at the time—asked me, ‘Daddy, why are you writing so fast?’ And I replied, ‘Because I want to see how the story turns out!’” -Louis L’Amour

“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

I hope you enjoyed these quotes from great writers and other famous people. May these writing quotes inspire you to write with more joy and purpose.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, publishes books about business, customer service, the call center industry, and business and writing.