Being a writer is kind of like being a soldier, or being married. (Speaking as someone who's done all three.) It's very hard, very rewarding, and no one who hasn't done it is ever going to understand.
So when you've been asked for the thousandth time what your novel is about and when it's going to be published, and when you've resisted for the thousandth time the impulse to shake the questioner and scream, "What's with the third degree?!", it's good to know that you're not alone in the universe. Here are 14 quotes from great writers through the ages that perfectly sum up the joys and pains of our profession.
1) William Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream": “And as imagination bodies forth/ The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen/ Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing/ A local habitation and a name.”
2) Samuel Johnson, "A Dictionary of the English Language": “It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life to be rather driven by the fear of evil than attracted by the prospect of good…Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries whom mankind have considered not as the pupil, but the slave of science…doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstruction from the path of Learning and Genius who press forward to conquest and glory without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.”
3) William Blake: “Poetry fettered, fetters the human race.”
4) Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass": “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
5) Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn": “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted. Persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished. Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. By order of the author.”
6) J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit": “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.”
7) Orson Welles: “If you want a happy ending, it depends on where you stop the story.”
8) Paul Theroux: “Fiction gives us the second chance that life denies us.”
9) Ron Carlson: “I always write from my own experiences whether I’ve had them or not.”
10) Peter S. Beagle, "Oakland Dragon Blues": “…That wasn’t a real story. It’s not in any book – you were just…making it up as you went along. I’ll bet you couldn’t repeat it right now if you tried. Like a little kid telling a lie.” The author laughed outright… “You’re quite right. We’re all little kids telling lies, writers are, hoping we can keep the lies straight and get away with them…Absolutely right…But you make the same mistake most people do. The magic’s not in books, not in the publishing – it’s in the telling, always.”
11) Terry Pratchett, "Wyrd Sisters": “Particles of raw inspiration sleet through the universe all the time. Every once in a while one of them hits a receptive mind which then invents DNA, or the flute sonata form, or a way of making light bulbs wear out in half the time. But most of them miss. Most people go through their whole lives without being hit by even one. Some people are even more unfortunate. They get them all.”
12) Stephen King, "On Writing": “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 center of the room. Art is a support system for life, not the other way around.”
13) J.K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows": “Tell me one thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has it been happening inside my head?”
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry. But why on earth should that mean it isn’t real?”
14) Erin Morgenstern, "The Night Circus": “It is important . . . Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast . . . someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift. Your sister may be able to see the future, but you can shape it, boy. Do not forget that . . . There are many kinds of magic, after all.”
Did I miss any of your favorite writing quotes? Let me know down in the comments.
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