Inspirational Quotes From Notable Authors

I was cleaning out the cupboard below one of my book shelves when I came across an old notebook containing famous people's quotes I've copied over the years. Some of them are from best-selling authors. I've always wondered if authors of classic novels had an easier time writing than I do. Apparently not, according to some of the quotes in my notebook.

Most of my stories begin with a character and then the 'what ifs' come into play. 

          Find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!
         Ray Bradbury

Good advice and here's another one.

          I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.
        Stephen King

Beginning to write a new story or novel can be daunting. Figuring out where to set it, what goal to give the main character and keeping the plot on course can slow us down.


          Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good.
          William Faulkner

          To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
          Herman Melville

Sometimes we get lost in the writing process, but giving up isn't an option.

          Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
          E. L. Doctorow

It's important to surround yourself with supportive family and friends. Encouragement and praise is something writers feed on.

          It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.
          Isaac Asimov

What could be harder than writing? Editing, of course.


          Half my life is an act of revision.
        John Irving

Only half! Self-editing is a never ending chore. When is a manuscript good enough to send out?

          It is perfectly okay to write garbage, as long as you edit brilliantly.
         C. J. Cherryh

           I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
           Gustave Flaubert 

It's difficult to know what length the manuscript will be when all your little gems have been written down.


          Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long time to make it short.
        Henry David Thoreau

Some (or should I say many?) writers have a primary career and writing is a hobby. Finding your title on the Best Seller's list is usually just a dream. 

          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

Wherever a writer goes, people are always amazed when they learn what you do. 

          People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up to the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it.
          Harlan Ellison

And a few final words of inspiration.

          If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.
          Somerset Maugham