Writers Block Quotes

“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?”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“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.”
― Hilary Mantel

“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.”
― Lili St. Crow

“writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all”
― Charles Bukowski, The Last Night of the Earth Poems

“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.”
― David Lindsay-Abaire

“Very often we write down a sentence too early, then another too late; what we have to do is write it down at the proper time, otherwise it's lost.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Concrete

“Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool!" said my muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write.”
― Philip Sidney, Astrophel And Stella

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

“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.”
― Erica Jong, The New Writer's Handbook 2007: A Practical Anthology of Best Advice for Your Craft and Career

“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”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“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. Specifically:
His rhinoceros smelled like a poppadom: sweaty, salty, strange and strong.
Her editor would cut that line.”
― Jaclyn Moriarty, The Spell Book of Listen Taylor

“The music lets me see the story but the story doesn't let me write the words.”
― Elizabeth J. Kolodziej

“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”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“Allowing yourself to make mistakes can ultimately go beyond a writer’s block.”
― Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon - The Artist's Guide to Liberation from Procrastination

“Many writers write because they’ve been there, seen that, did it and burnt their fingers”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“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.”
― Albert Sánchez Piñol, Pandora in the Congo

“A writer is never alone, he is always with himself”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“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.”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“Don't believe in everything that is written. Not everything that is written is true”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“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”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“If I can write, who possibly can’t. Even drawing a line in the sand is writing”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

“Not for the first time in the history of the universe, someone for whom communication normally came as effortlessly as a dream was stuck for inspiration when faced with a few lines on the back of a card.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

“Oh, how I've envied the lives of those who could spend life sitting down. A place to sit, a place to sit! I'd lament, circling my empty chair.”
― Wolfgang Hilbig, The Tidings of the Trees

“Drat verse,
And steam, and Paris, and the fins of Time!”
― Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Essential Rossetti

“What is creativity? Above all, it is play, the child's fresh spontaneity waiting to come forth in writing, or painting, or composing music, or any creative act.”
― Victoria Nelson, On Writer's Block

“Many people find it difficult to head straight for their fun; something in them refuses to play. The barrier is not lack of willpower (did you ever need willpower, as a child, to make mud pies?), but a stronger and much more seductive emotion: hatred. Specifically, hatred of self.
Loving oneself—as opposed to the narcissism of being
in love with oneself, with all its attendant insecurities—is one of the most difficult life tasks to master, and it is integrally related to the creative process.”
― Victoria Nelson, On Writer's Block

“The best way to write is to lock yourself in a small room until you become so bored that the only thing left to do is write.”
― Jack Freestone

“It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Self-doubt is every writer’s nemesis. While healthy in moderation, unchecked self-doubt can lead to procrastination, crippling perfectionism, and ultimately failure. If you’re drawn to storytelling, you already have the precious spark of creativity. What’s holding you back is a lack of knowledge and confidence in your abilities.”
― Will Raywood, Trust Your Story: Master Storytelling and Build a Successful Creative Writing Career