Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Writing books takes lots of courage, perseverance, and creativity. As a result, writers need to head to the well of inspiration on a regular basis. Authorial quotes are plastered on refrigerators and bathroom mirrors and frame computer screens.
Today let’s share inspiration. In the comments section, tell us which quotes have been mainstays for you or a new one that’s reknindled your resolve.
In honor of Memorial Day, offer up a quote or two from an author who has passed on.
Both of my mainstays are instructive. One of them is from the genius writer Mark Twain.
God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God’s adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.
The other is by a fellow whose writing advice is more famous than he is:
Murder your darlings.
And here’s a brief description of the maxim creator and the quote’s context:
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch wrote the phrase in his widely reprinted 1913-1914 Cambridge lectures “On the Art of Writing.” In his 1914 lecture “On Style,” he said, while railing against “extraneous Ornament”:
If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.
Now, what are your favorite writerly quotes?
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“Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him.”
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Feb 11)
God plants ideas in my imagination; I imagine myself kneeling before the Throne of Grace and placing my manuscript at His feet.
Oswald Chambers is so inspiring. Thanks for sharing this quote.
“Till that ground, plant that garden, water those seeds, weed it.” He pointed to the garden spot with his crooked finger that had been caught in the tractor years prior. “Because when you are only able to sit in this chair and have no strength for nothing more, well,”–with tearful eyes, he looked once more out the screen door onto the untamed garden site of his life–“you just get ready to go home.”
Charles Ray Stinson, my Pa-Paw and WWII Purple Heart recipient. He survived the war, but the gunshot wound weakened his heart and ultimately led to his death.
Beautiful and poignant, dear Shelli. ❀
That’s a perfect Memorial Day quote, Shelli. And a very personal one.
Amen.
Or…when you’ve just blown the last daisy chain of claymores, and the little people are through the wire, load the last magazine, and eyes to God.
In the short time I’ve been following this blog, you’ve often been helping me through the wire. I hope you don’t fire that last magazine for some time yet. Praying for you.
Thanks for sharing that, Shelli. Your Pa-Paw was a wise man.
I’ve never read that quote by Mark Twain before. Thanks for sharing it!
There are a number of quotes that speak to me, but one is:
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~ William Wordsworth
I love how God brings clarity to my mind and heart when I put words on paper. 🙂
What a beautiful Wordsworthian quote.
“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’ve fairly well acquainted with saying what I want to say, anytime, anywhere. And I try to always do that in a way that doesn’t hurt or wound anyone.
But when Big Things come along and grab me, I have to respond. I HAVE to. The greatest compliment I can hear about the descendants of those whose history I write about, and whose story I try to tell is “I never thought of them that way”.
That quote so exemplifies your passion for writing, Jennifer.
When I write, I am the instrument, not the hand.
Janet, your mention of “courage, perseverance, and creativity” remind me of a quote by Goethe that I adore:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
I hope this blesses others as it continues to bless me ~ Wendy ❀
What a powerful quote, Wendy. I think part of the decision to begin is not only that events line up to facilitate your undertaking at that point, but you also have the eyes to see the opportunities that are dancing in front of you.
Rewriting is recognizing the opportunities that almost slipped away.
I can’t find this quote or who said it. I read it in a writing book years and years and years ago. So if anyone knows who said this, I’d love to know!
I hadn’t heard that one before; good quote–and motivation to keep on rewriting.
Several years ago I read a short piece on actress Malinda Williams. At the time she appeared in Showtime’s series “Soul Food”. She was also writing two screenplays and a TV script about black women. She said, “I’ll always be writing something new. If all this stuff is inside of me waiting to get out, it can only get out through me.”
For me that is inspiring and motivating. I put that in a notebook I started on quotes about writing.
Another quote I like is from Sylvia Plath: “And, by the way, everything in life is writeable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
Awesome quotes!
“If I waited for perfection I would never write a word.”
I recently posted this Margaret Atwood quote at my desk, because I can’t kill my darlings if I don’t have any darlings to kill. For me it’s that basic … just write! 🙂
Good points,Kit.
“Writing a book is an adventure: to begin with, it is a toy and an amusement, and then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then it becomes a tyrant, and the last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him about to the public.” –Winston Churchill
Dean, thanks for making me laugh. We’ve all been there, done that.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” I John 1
It inspires me no end to consider that God created the world through the Word. I know “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us,” which continues to motivate me, that words have power to live. In no way do I equate my words to THE WORD, but I am humbled and motivated join God in creating with words.
I had thought of this passage, too, Barbara. It is both a profoundly humbling and inspiring thing as a writer to know that God Himself chose your creative medium to use when communicating with His people and when creating, and that He goes so far as to refer to Himself as the Word!
I see no gleam of victory alluring,
no hope of splendid booty or of gain.
If I endure, I must go on enduring,
and my sole reward for bearing pain – is pain.
Yet though the thrill, the zest, and the hope are gone
something within me keeps me fighting on.
– Henry Lee
Andrew, what an apropos quote from you. This poem so personifies your life.
May be falling now, but I will urge others forward. Love is God’s Prime Mover, and I am blessed to have learned that in time.
One of my favorites: “The main purpose of fiction is not to surprise you. The main purpose of fiction is to give you a powerful emotional experience. And emotion is not mainly about surprise.” –Randy Ingermanson
That reminds me of another Twain quote: “Truth is stranger than fiction. That’s because fiction has to be believable.”
Such a truth, Janet. I recently told some friends that I’d love to use their unusual circumstances in a novel, but they were too improbable for fiction!
I’ll add another Churchill quote to the mix. I’m not sure he was specifically referring to writing, but it’s very apropos.
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
The process is as important as the product!
That’s a wonderful quote, and one writers certainly can relate to.
Just found this in my travels around the internet today and it is perfect.
“Only bad writers think that their work is really good.”
–Anne Enright
I am now a BIG FAN of all that self doubt I experience 😉
Laura, wow, you really know how to bust a hubris bubble, don’t you? 🙂
I love quotes that inspire and/or point out truths. So I’ll throw this advice to writers from Margaret Atwood into the mix.
“You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.”
Ann, the “don’t whine” part of this advice made me smile. But we feel so much better when we whine!
I have several. “Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little.” (Holley Gerth) My very favorite one for character development is a culmination of several similar quotes that I’ve adopted. “Remember, the villain always thinks he is the hero in his own story.” Another great one is by Steven Pressfield. “If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.” 😀
Those are great, Tara. I especially like the villain seen from his POV.
”God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”
I had this St. Augustine of Hippo quote above my desk at work for years. I had it there mainly to remind me to never put off conversations about Jesus with unbelieving friends. You never know if you’ll have another day with them. I was planning to share with a good friend the next time we ate lunch, but he died before I saw him again.
My laptop sucks me into my manuscript every time I turn it on, even when there’s something more pressing to do, so I guess I don’t need it for writing. Still, it is a great quote for keeping focus on getting something finished.