Writers on Writing

"I write for the same reason I breathe—because if I didn't I would die."—Isaac Asimov

I'm fascinated by other writer's observations. I hope their quotes make you laugh, think about why you write, and motivate you to pursue your writing passion.

"A writer can make a fortune in America, but he can't make a living."—James Michener

"As a confirmed melancholic, I can testify that the best and maybe only antidote for melancholia is action. However, like most melancholics, I suffer also from sloth."—Edward Abbey

"It is not the writer's task to answer questions but to question answers."—Edward Abbey

"The writer is not a pastry chef, a cosmetician, or an entertainer. He is a man bound by contract to his sense of duty and to his conscience."—Anton Chekhov

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs; jolted by every pebble in the road."—Henry Ward Beecher

"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster."—Isaac Asimov

"Life is not an easy matter.... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness."—Leon Trotsky

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."—Robertson Davies

"I don't get ideas; ideas get me."—Robertson Davies