Wise Words From Successful Writers

We learn a great deal from the experience of successful writers. It's up to us to pay attention and put their Wise Words to good use. I'm sharing a list of quotes by published writers whose names may be familiar to you. Use 3 steps to absorb the advice--read, ponder, apply.

“When I graduated from high school I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library 3 days a week for 10 years.”
—Ray Bradbury

“The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.”
—Raymond Chandler

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect."
--Anaïs Nin

"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."
--Mark Twain

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
--Robert Frost

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
--William Faulkner

"Writing is its own reward."
--Henry Miller

"You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write."

--Annie Proulx

There are hundreds of quotes on writing that you can find with a search engine. Look for them to motivate you, help you understand the process of writing, to be amused and to learn.