10 Writer Quotes Full of Simple (Not Easy) Advice

Amazing writers have left us little bread crumbs, showing us the way. Let’s see what we can learn from them today.

Photo by Kenrick Mills on Unsplash

1. Read, damnit.

“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

2. Let yourself be intense on the page.

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
— Franz Kafka

3. Now that you understand grammar, know when to let it go.

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”
— Elmore Leonard

4. Be irresponsible with your ideas.

“When you make music or write or create, it’s really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you’re writing about at the time. “
— Lady Gaga

5. It’s all about the details.

“Making people believe the unbelievable is no trick; it’s work. … Belief and reader absorption come in the details: An overturned tricycle in the gutter of an abandoned neighborhood can stand for everything.”
— Stephen King

6. If there’s one thing that matters most, it’s showing up.

“You don’t start out writing good stuff… That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

‒ Octavia E. Butler

7. Write what you know. (You know so, so much.)