Ever wonder what your favorite authors had to say about the writing process? Look no further.

1. “The most valuable of all
talents is that of never using
two words when one will do.”
-Thomas Jefferson

2. “The difference bet.een the almost right word
and the right word is really a large ma7er– ’tis the
difference bet.een the light:ing bug and the light:ing.”
-­‐Mark Twain

3. “Writers aren’t people exactly.
Or, if they’re any good, they’re
a whole lot of people trying so
hard to be one person.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. “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.”
-William Allen White

5. “The first draft of !
everything is shit.”!
-Ernest Hemingway

6. “Don’t be a writer;
be writing.”
-William Faulkner

7. “What I try to do is write. I may write for two
weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not
a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring
and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I
write. And then it’s as if the muse is
convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay.
Okay. I’ll come.’”
-Maya Angelou

8. “I would advise anyone who
aspires to a writing career that
before developing his talent he
would be wise to develop a thick
hide.”
-Harper Lee

9. “If you don’t have time to read, you
don’t have the time—or the tools—
to write. Simple as that.”
-Stephen King

10. “The main rule of writing is that if you
do it with enough assurance and
confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever
you like. So write your story as it needs to
be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as
best you can. I’m not sure there are any
other rules. Not ones that matter.”
-Neil Gaiman

11. “Sometimes the ideas just come to
me. Other times I have to sweat
and almost bleed to make ideas
come. It’s a mysterious process,
but I hope I never find out exactly
how it works.”
-J.K. Rowling

12. “Writing is like sausage making
in my view. You’ll all be happier
in the end if you just eat the final
product without knowing what’s
gone into it.”!
-George R.R. Martin