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Now we know why some writers drink!

December 23, 2023June 4, 2026 1341

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

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.

Michael Burke

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.

George Singleton

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.

Stephen Wright

If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.

Stan Lee

Every writer with half a brain knows to surround himself or herself with editors who are smarter, far more articulate and infinitely better looking.

Chris Claremont

I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until I have a solid sense of how that ending sounds and feels. You have to know what your voice sounds like at the end of the story, because it tells you how to sound when you begin.

John Irving

No writer has ever yet been known to hang himself as long as he had another chapter left.

Thomas Wolfe

It always comes down to characters, and individual stories about courage.

Steven Bochco

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

Romulus Linney

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.

John Legend

What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.

Jeanette Walls

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

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.

Clarence Budington Kelland

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

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

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

Just don’t be boring!

Robert Liebmann

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.