Writing Pro Quotes & Sayings

An avalanche starts with one pebble. A forest with one seed. And it takes one word to make the whole world stop and listen. All you need is the right one. — Jay Kristoff

I started submitting stories for publication when I was about 15, but it was many years before I sold anything. I don't make my living writing science fiction, so in that sense, I'm still not a pro. — Ted Chiang

When people say to me, 'Why are you so good at writing at women?' I say, 'Why isn't everybody?' Obviously there are differences between men and women - that's what makes it all fun. But we're all people. There's a lot of good writers who are very humanist, but still manage to kind of skip fifty-five per cent of the race. And I just don't get that. Not to be able to write an entire gender? To me, the question isn't how do you do it? It's how can you possibly avoid doing it? — Joss Whedon

I'd play the same character for ten years if the words and the moments that I'm playing are authentic. — David Walton

I ran into an old friend on the street and we started up a conversation. Four hours and six bottles of wine later, we decided the weather was just too unpredictable, and we parted ways. — Bauvard

You're my perfectly flawed, shattered fucking mess. — Stevie J. Cole

If Shakespeare had been in pro basketball, he never would have had time to write his soliloquies. He would have always been on a plane between Phoenix and Kansas City. — Paul Westhead

When we make time to write, we can do it anytime, anywhere. — Julia Cameron

I have been drawn to Milton Friedman's argument for a negative income tax (NIT) that entirely replaces the existing system of income transfers and social services. The quid pro quo would be that the government withdraw altogether from every other form of interference in the organization of social life. Under such a plan the Department of Health and Human Services would become a check-writing office, and the social service agencies, bureaus, and offices scattered throughout government would close down. — Charles Murray

The Bible, after all, repeatedly speaks of God as the special protector of the poor, the widow, and the orphan, without
raising the question of how it happened that they became poor, widowed, or orphaned in the first place. — Harold S. Kushner

A writer who's a pro can take on almost any assignment, but if he or she doesn't much care about the subject, I try to dissuade the writer, as in that case the book can be just plain hard labor. — Sterling Lord

George Grant's writing is an invaluable asset to Americans in general, and to the pro-life Americans in particular. I am grateful for his leadership and courage to defend the sanctity of life, and to tell the truth at all costs. — Beverly LaHaye

With a small town mentality, you make a decision very early on as to whether you are going to do everything by the book or just go your own way and not care. — Bjork

I tend to like strong female characters. It just interests me dramatically.
A strong male character isn't interesting because it has been done and it's so cliched. A weak male character is interesting: somebody else hasn't done it a hundred times. A strong female character is still interesting to me because it hasn't been done all that much, finding the balance of femininity and strength.
[From a 1986 Fangoria interview] — James Cameron

To be successful in sports or business, you really have to live the lifestyle. Success is about lifestyle. Just because I was training and working hard, that didn't make me champion or a good fighter. My lifestyle made me a good fighter. In my mind and my daily life, I was the heavy weight champ when I was 15 or 14. I lived the life of the heavyweight champion, and that's who I became. And that is so much more than just training. So, when the time presented itself, that's who I already was. I was ready. I was already there. — Mike Tyson

At the end of the day I have many answers for it. It has to do with my mom, who was an extraordinary woman, and a great feminist. It has to do with the people in my life. It has to do with a lot of different things, but
I don't know! Because I'm not just writing from the female characters for other people. I have a desire to see them in our culture
that was not met for most of my childhood. Except occasionally by James Cameron.
[From the 2011 San Diego Comic Con, in response to being asked why he writes strong female characters.] — Joss Whedon

The whole point of having money, and working and making money, is to enjoy and spend it. — Irving Paul Lazar

When confronted with two courses of action I jot down on a piece of paper all the arguments in favor of each one, then on the opposite side I write the arguments against each one. Then by weighing the arguments pro and con and cancelling them out, one against the other, I take the course indicated by what remains. — Benjamin Franklin

For me I'd say ... a fact that nobody knows about me is that I hate eggs, they gross me out. It's this weird thing from childhood, I don't know what it is, but I just think eggs are disgusting. — Mikey Way

There was a long stint during my childhood after I gave up on being a pro football player - we're talking sixth grade here - that I strongly considered a future writing and drawing comic books. I have been making stuff up ever since. — Adam Ross

You honor your writing space by recovering, if you are an addict. You honor your writing space by becoming an anxiety expert, a real pro at mindfulness and personal calming. You honor your writing space by affirming that you matter, that your writing life matters, and that your current writing project matters. You honor your writing space by entering it with this mantra: "I am ready to work." You enter, grow quiet, and vanish into your writing. — Eric Maisel

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. — Pablo Picasso

After everything he'd built, planned, fought for, fretted over, dreamed of, this was the summation of his life; one disappointing son and two suitcases. — Khaled Hosseini

Are you willing to give up what you love, for who you love? — Big Sean

I looked back into his eyes. "You're married?" "Yeah," he confirmed. "She's lucky," I whispered and he grinned his shit-eating grin again. "Sorry, Tess, that's me." Great freaking response. So great, I felt my face go soft and I smiled. "Bet she thinks differently." His face went soft too and he replied, "Yeah, she does, one of the many reasons she makes me lucky. — Kristen Ashley

We will have to see whether the practicing through the years has prepared me for the writing of a book. For this is the book I have always wanted and have worked and prayed to be able to write. We shall see whether I am capable. Surely I feel humble in the face of this work. And as our Roman friends would say when casting outside themselves for help, Ora pro mihi. February — John Steinbeck