great quotes on writing from history's greatest authors

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”��� ��� -Thomas Jefferson

“The  difference  bet.een  the  almost  right  word    and  the  right  word  is  really  a  large  ma7er–  ’tis  the  difference  bet.een  the  light:ing  bug  and  the  light:ing.”  

                 -­‐Mark  Twain  

“Writers aren’t people exactly. �Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.”�� -F. Scott Fitzgerald  

“Substitute damn every time you’re inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

-William Allen White

“The first draft of !everything is shit.”! -Ernest Hemingway

“Don’t be a writer; be writing.” -William Faulkner

“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’”

         -Maya Angelou

“I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”

-Harper Lee

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time—or the tools—to write. Simple as that.” ���

-Stephen King  

“The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.” �

-Neil Gaiman

“Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It’s a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works.”

-J.K. Rowling

“Writing is like sausage making in my view. You’ll all be happier in the end if you just eat the final product without knowing what’s gone into it.”� -George R.R. Martin