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Now we know why some writers drink!

December 23, 2023May 9, 2025 734

There is a stereotype out there about writers. They’re talented and frustrated and hit the bottle way too often. Maybe the reason some talented writers are frustrated and drink to excess is because of what they’re asked to write. Example:

Why Writers Drink

If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.

William C. Gault

Anecdotes don’t make good stories. Generally, I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.

Alice Munro

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

Matthew Arnold

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

Anton Chekhov

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

Dan Poynter

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

Stories are never too long or too short. They’re too interesting or too boring.

William Shawn

I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.

Roald Dahl

The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.

Douglas Adams

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

Roddy Doyle

A writer is a world trapped in a person.

Victor Hugo

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

Romulus Linney

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

William Goldman

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Thomas Jefferson

Just don’t be boring!

Robert Liebmann

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 is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.

Bob Dylan

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

I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.