You’ve heard of writer’s block. But have you heard of reader’s block?

05 Aug, 2019

I found this in the August 2nd, 2019, New York Times. Fun reading...if you're not suffering from reader's block: Reader's block article

You’ve heard of writer’s block. But have you heard of reader’s block?

August 5, 2019July 21, 2023

I found this in the August 2nd, 2019, New York Times. Fun reading…if you’re not suffering from reader’s block: Read More...

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

William Faulkner

It’s an accepted fact that all writers are crazy; even the normal ones are weird.

William Goldman

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.

Mark Twain

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G.K. Chesterton

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

Joseph Conrad

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it’s to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.

Jim Morrison

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Robert Benchley

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer. You’re a waiter.

Dan Poynter

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.

Matthew Arnold

A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.

Robert McKee

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

There are three primal urges in human beings: Food, sex, and rewriting someone else’s play.

Romulus Linney

You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.

Jodi Picoult

Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.

Stephen King

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

Ever heard of a carpenter not going to work because he has “carpenter’s block”? If a writer can’t write, it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper or he’s just plain lazy.

Chet Cunningham

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.

Stephen Leigh

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

Raymond Chandler

Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.