Writing Determination Quotes

I always ask young writers, 'Are you certain you want to be a writer? If you're absolutely sure, then do it.' If you really want to write, writing has to take precedence over everything else, except for taking care of your loved ones. It has to be more important than any possession, more important than fame. We hear about just a few writers who get famous, but most of them don't. It's got to mean more than that.

I could not have written a novel if I hadn't been a journalist first, because it taught me that there's no muse that's going to come down and bestow upon you the mood to write. You just have to do it. I'm definitely not precious.

With writing, you really have to have faith. You have to have some sort of confidence that if you keep at it, you will get where you need to go, because there are so many points where a rational person would quit.

I've been very lucky. There were times when I was afraid I would never sell another book, but I never doubted I'd write another book.

There's a word for a writer who never gives up: published.

What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? Writing requires you make sacrifices. Be prepared to work hard to be a writer.

That, for me, is a very important test of a young writer's commitment because most of them are going to have to continue doing that when they've finished the program.

I was incredibly determined - I wrote short stories, I wrote the beginnings of novels. I wrote a little children's book and sent it to the editor-in-chief of the children's division of Simon and Schuster and she asked me to write a little children's book for a series she was doing.

I've been writing since I was six years old. It's hard to imagine stopping. I would hate to think that I've already written my best book.

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.

Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers.

I never bought the excuse of not having time to write. If you really want to do it, you're either going to find those hours or eventually decide not to be a writer.

I also believe that if you're really a writer, you'll write, and that nobody could stop you.

Hell man, I know very well you didn't come to me only to want to become a writer, and after all what do I really know about it except that you've got to stick to it with the energy of a benny addict.