Some Quotes on Life and Writing

Pit your daily determination, discipline, grit, and sense of duty against the debilitating emotions of fear, dread, confusion, and procrastination.
-- Lloyd D. Newell. Oct. 17. 2010 ("Music and the Spoken Word")

There isn't time to talk about someday writing that short story or poem or novel. Slow down now, touch what is around you, and out of care and compassion for each moment and detail, put pen to paper and begin to write. - Natalie Goldberg

Don't quit. It's very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it's very hard to write when nobody cares one way or the other. You can't get fired if you don't write, and most of the time you don't get rewarded if you do. But don't quit. - Andre Dubus

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. -- Pablo Picasso

Nothing keeps a poet in his high singing mood like unappeasable hunger for unattainable food. -- Joyce Kilmer

Life began for me when I ceased to admire and began to remember. -- Willa Cather

I am always surprised at what I find in myself, and this to me is the most rewarding part of being a writer. -- Doris Lessing

I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top. ~English Professor (Name Unknown), Ohio University

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie

Publication - is the auction of the Mind of Man. ~Emily Dickinson

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ~Arthur Polotnik

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. ~Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 19 August 1851

An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere. ~Gustave Flaubert

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted. ~Jules Renard, Journal, 10 April 1895

I do not like to write - I like to have written. ~Gloria Steinem



And one exquisite stanza of a poem by Ezra Pound (not necessarily about writing):


What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross.
What thou lovest well shall not be reft from thee.
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage.