Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch.

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?

writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all

Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you.

All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. If you imagine the world listening, you'll never write a line. That's why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.

The music lets me see the story but the story doesn't let me write the words.

The internet is killing the art of writing. The big "publish" button begs you to publish even before you go back and make one single edit, and as if this was not enough, you have instant readers who praise your writing skills!-

If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to ­music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.", 25 February 2010]

I don't sit around waiting for passion to strike me. I keep working steadily, because I believe it is our privilege as humans to keep making things. Most of all, I keep working because I trust that creativity is always trying to find me, even when I have lost sight of it.

Nonetheless, writing regularly, inspiration or no, is not a bad way to eventually get into an inspired mood; the plane has to bump along the runway for a while before it finally takes off.

I have no doubt that Taylor Swift will call one day after suffering writers block: "Alfa, I was told that you were the person to call." I gotcha girlfriend.

If you surrender to your imagination, the story will write itself.

On a writer’s path there are always some level of pain and solitude, life and death, love and hate, longing and fullness of soul, romance and separation, contemplation and adventure. And each one of them is constantly walking side by side in my lifetime. Always reachable by a thought.

I used to be afraid about what people might say or think after reading what I had written. I am not afraid anymore, because when I write, I am not trying to prove anything to anyone, I am just expressing myself and my opinions. It’s ok if my opinions are different from those of the reader, each of us can have his own opinions. So writing is like talking, if you are afraid of writing, you may end up being afraid of talking

I am not a supporter of burning books; but like poison, some books should be kept away from simple minds who can't take in the strong content they provide

One author said "I write because I want to live a footprint in the sands of history.” It's hard to live a footprint in the sands of history when giants are passing through the same sands unless you are one of the giants

In order to protect their good names for posterity, many writers never wrote what they thought or the truth as it stood. That's why truth still lies hidden in matters of power, sex and religion. No wonder they chose to do so, many who dared paid with their heads

Ran out of things to say, metaphors for you. Why the ocean’s clear instead of blue, why mountains in the distance had reminded me of you.

If you are writing fiction, think like a god. Release all the power of your imagination; create worlds and destroy them at your will, create as many miracles as your story needs

If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to ­music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be pat

Writing is a sickness only cured by writing.

The world would have been a better place if some men had just shut their mouths.

I am what I have ever read

We write, not because we claim to know more than others, but perhaps because we want to know more than others. Writers are explorers

Words disappear in the air, but writing remains. If you want something to be remembered about you, write it down

A writer is never alone, he is always with himself

You say you have nothing to write about? How do you find things to talk about? You can write about those things you like to talk about, that's your area of expertise

. If you want to write, just write anything that comes into your mind. You will be surprised at how you can force inspiration to stand on your side.

You can edit what you write. Why not edit what you say? If it hurts somebody, you can still offer an apology or withdraw your statements

Able writers let us into their minds and show us how they think and by that open our minds to ourselves

Sometimes I have a good idea, something I wish I could remember, and instead of writing it down, commit it to my memory only to disappear when I needed it. Write your ideas as they come, if you wait it will be too long and you may not recover it. It may get destroyed as it is to seed to and fro in the ever rushing river of our thoughts

If you are afraid of the critics you will never write a word

You never know what you will write until you write it

Write it as you see in your own perspective, you may be right or wrong but then what, that's how you see it

How do you feel when you read stuff written by dead authors? A visit by a ghost?

You cannot write if you are not angry

You cannot write if you are not on fire

Writing is sharing. You share what you have. Great writers have more to share

People speak even after their death. Only do speak those who have recorded their speech in writing before they die, the rest go silent forever

The power of a writer is that he is a god of sorts. He can create his own worlds and populate them with his own people, all by the powers of his imagination. It's the closest a man can come close to the gods. No wonder the most successful writers are considered immortals

Self-censorship is more efficient than any police. You write and say not what you really think, but what you believe is acceptable. By that process we lose those revolutionary ideas that could change society for the better

Many writers write because they’ve been there, seen that, did it and burnt their fingers

A writer reports on the universe. When he presents his credentials, the gates of heaven and hell are equally opened to him. He can hear the devil’s defense and god’s accusations. The guards at the king’s heart let him in. The writer can be anything and any one he wants. When he writes he is a god, he creates.

If I can write, who possibly can’t. Even drawing a line in the sand is writing

The power of the writer is to capture the thoughts live and present them as they appeared in his mind

Writing is self-pleasure

Writing is all about self-expression, we want to speak up, to get it off our chest. Whether we make an impact or not that is not for us to decide

If I had time, money and knowledge I could write about everything; but no problem, Google is already doing it

Writing is magic happening on paper

Every book is worth reading. If it cannot make you wiser it will make you a critic

Today almost everybody is a writer, the enormous publish button on blogs and websites begs you everywhere to click on it! And bam you are a writer. To hell with agents and publishing houses and rejection letters. Immortality for you is on the click of a mouth! We are advancing at the speed of light! You can become an author at 140 characters. To hell with long winding sentences and long hours of scratching the head, the immortals of today instantly get a "like" and they instantly enter the pantheon! They seat side by side Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, St Paul, Buddha, Martin Luther, Rousseau, Bangambiki…

When I write sometimes I strike gold, sometimes I labor in vain and keep producing rubbish

Don't believe in everything that is written. Not everything that is written is true

There’s no such thing as writer’s block, so long as you’ve had plenty of time to think about what you want to write.

Writer's block is just another name for fear.

The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first.

You know, the whole thing about perfectionism. The perfectionism is very dangerous. Because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything. Because doing anything results in...it's actually kind of tragic because you sacrifice how gorgeous and perfect it is in your head for what it really is. And there were a couple of years where I really struggled with that.

Writers block occurs when a writer has nothing to say. Unfortunately not all writers experience it.

Whenever I encounter writer’s block, I stop writing … with my hands; and I then start writing with my legs.

What is hell to a writer? Hell is being too busy to find the time to write or being unable to find the inspiration. Hell is suddenly finding the words but being away from your notebook or typewriter. Hell is when the verses slip away through your fingers and they never return again.

Stop waiting for creative inspiration. Start creating and inspire yourself along the way.

I apologize to my words for not nurturing you and giving you the attention that you deserve.

To be motivated to write a novel, I need to be unable not to write.

A hammer made of deadlines is the surest tool for crushing writer's block.

When she got back from taking Cassie to school Fancy knew that she ought to be working on her wilderness romance. She had promised thirty thousand words to her editor by tomorrow, and she had only written eleven. Specific

My ideas are a shapeless mass that my writing molds into beauty.

Every word I write is another stroke that takes me to the shore of a completed book.

Replace your old books with the books you’ve always wanted to write.

Every word I write is a seed that I may nurture into a small, beautiful poem or a tall, soaring tree.

The thing I want to write most is the next thing I write.

If she was going to write a novel, she felt defeated before she began, because someone might be coming along to pick it apart, looking for symbols like The Conch or The Whale, which seemed to have mythic proportions.

She meant you have to live a story for a time.''And?''And then you can write it, in time. What have you lived?''Kind of a personal question for Twitterland.''Kind of the perfect question to answer in fiction.

When words don't come easy, I make do with silence and find something in nothing." ~ Strider Marcus Jones, Poet

I am sorry, I am not a writer. I simply put my thoughts on paper. Those helped by them call them a book and me a writer. Those who are not helped call it rubbish and me a fool. Both have reason.

One day I will write a book. An epitaph

Every book has its ancestors

Writing is exposing yourself to strangers

Writing is a competition between the writer and the page. When the page wins, you fail as a writer.

Breaking through writer's block is like thinking out of the box: Both require an ability to imagine a world outside your four walls or rearranging them to get a better view.

Confront the page that taunts you with its whiteness. Face your enemy and fill it with words. You are bigger and stronger than a piece of paper.

Putting pen to paper without first deciding the route and pace at which to scribe is like setting off on a bicycle without first checking the tyres.

Each time I write, I reaffirm my soul.

There is always, always, always something to write about.

Considering I'm a writer, you leave me strangely bereft of words.

In my younger days dodging the draft, I somehow wound up in the Marine Corps. There's a myth that Marine training turns baby-faced recruits into bloodthirsty killers. Trust me, the Marine Corps is not that efficient. What it does teach, however, is a lot more useful.The Marine Corps teaches you how to be miserable.This is invaluable for an artist.Marines love to be miserable. Marines derive a perverse satisfaction in having colder chow, crappier equipment, and higher casualty rates than any outfit of dogfaces, swab jockeys, or flyboys, all of whom they despise. Why? Because these candy-asses don't know how to be miserable.The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any soldier or swabbie or jet jockey. Because this is war, baby. And war is hell."Page 68

The trouble with a baby, for writists, is that they take away your useful melancholy, even the energy to invent some.

I haven't written in a week. It's like holding your breath under water. You feel an awful constriction and then the instinct to propel yourself.

Yes, I felt very small. The typewriter seemed larger than a piano, I was less than a molecule. What could I do? I drank more.-pg 237

Meggie Folchart: Having writer's block? Maybe I can help.Fenoglio: Oh yes, that's right. You want to be a writer, don't you?Meggie Folchart: You say that as if it's a bad thing.Fenoglio: Oh no, it's just a lonely thing. Sometimes the world you create on the page seems more friendly and alive than the world you actually live in.

I don't believe in writers' block. Do doctors have 'doctors block?' Do plumbers have 'plumbers' block?" No. We all have days when we don't feel like working, but why do writers turn that into something so damn special by giving it a faintly romantic name.

To get over artist's block, make shitty art.

Why do I keep evading my work? Is it because I’m afraid of being confronted by my lack of abilities?

Writing something new is an effective way to get rid of writer's block. Or you can observe the people around you and fantasize like I do.

To unlock the writer's block is to keep writing until you can unknot the "not". If you cannot, then put a can in the plot and unwrap it a lot!

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:"Fool!" said my muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write.

You don't have to take it out on my typewrite ya' know. It's not the machine's fault that you can't write. It's a sin to do that to a good machine.

Writing isn't difficult. Writing well is difficult. What is most difficult is being with the interior experience that manifests as resistance to writing.

Writing is like riding a bike. Once you gain momentum, the hills are easier. Editing, however, requires a motor and some horsepower.

Through the act of writing, a writer learns more about himself than he could ever imagine.

Failing to writer everyday doesn't mean that you've given up, though a chapter a day - keeps writers block away!