Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.
-Henry David Thoreau
Quotations
Writer
After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
-Jean Cocteau
To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.
-Truman Capote
"Truman Capote: Conversations"
Most so-called writers keep writing and writing with the hope to, some day, find something to say.
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Writing is the art of repeating oneself without anyone noticing.
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
-Cyril Connolly
The writer must be playful and serious at the same time.
-W. Somerset Maugham
A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.
-Nelson Mandela
There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to write.
-William Makepeace Thackeray
"The History Of Henry Esmond"
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
-Voltaire
