Good quotes are inspiring. Great quotes are transformative. Here are ten quotes that could change you as a writer. 

1. Modern art = I could do that + Yeah, but you didn’t

          -Craig Damraur

This gem is from Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon. If you don’t have this one, go pick it up right now. It’s so easy pop into any point in the book and grab some inspiration.

What’s loveable about this quote is it praises work. This quote could help a writer realize that just because other people could manage to replicate some creative project they’re thinking about, it doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.

Art doesn’t have to be “my god, do you see that inimitable skill?!” 

It’s good enough for art be an idea that others either haven’t come up with or didn’t bother to execute.

2. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

          -William Strunk Jr.

This one’s from the Elements of Style. You could go overboard with cutting out words and sentences due to the first half of this quote, but if you remember the second half, then the advice should treat you well.

3. If there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.

          -Toni Morrison

This is a popular one you’ve probably seen a lot, but it’s the truth. It’s easy to get tied up in wondering, “does this even have a market?” when considering a book you want to write. But if it’s something you would want to read, there are surely others who would want to read it.

4. A writer someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

          -Thomas Mann

Don’t think you’re not a good writer just because you find it challenging to write well, or to write at all. Once you’re good at something, you’ve fallen into a trap where you can’t bear for it to be done poorly. This means scribbling out a passage is going to be harder for you than a non-writer.

5. I write to discover what I know.

          -Flannery O’Connor

This one is interesting. The more commonly known quote is, “write what you know.” But sometimes you don’t know what you know. This is where forcing yourself to write can help you. Write down your first thought and then go down the rabbit hole. Write about how you want to write about something, and why. Write an outline of something you’ve been dreaming of writing but don’t feel you can.

6. Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

          -Anton Chekhov

This one is a more beautiful and inspiring way of saying the ol’ “Show, don’t tell.”

7. The first draft of anything is shit.

          -Ernest Hemmingway

Writers often become discouraged if a piece isn’t coming out the way they want on first try. It is helpful to realize that’s how it is for almost everything, and you need to just spill out the words then fix them later.

8. Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

          -E.L. Doctorow

This doesn’t apply just to novels, or even just to writing. It’s tempting to meticulously plan out your every project, but the truth is that the path often goes in a different direction than planned, and it’s best to just start at the beginning and go from there. The headlights will lead the way.

9. Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the readers.

          -Stephen King

This is important to remember for those of us who list descriptions like they’re what we need at the grocery store. One brief description of a person’s face on its own is more powerful and more memorable than a towering stack of descriptions.

10. Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us get up and go to work.

          -Also Stephen King

Inspiration is a luxury, so most of the time, you’re going to need to write without it.