Writers on Writing - Sulo Moorthy

Since I’m no expert to give advice on writing, I thought of taking up the Writers’ Creed which says, “When you are learning, seek help. When you are published, pass it on,” and sharing some valuable quotes from other writers.

“Every writer, by the way he uses the language, reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacities his bias. This is inevitable as well as enjoyable…Creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self escaping into the open. No writer long remains incognito."-E.B.White

“ If we had to say what writing is, we would define it essentially as an act of courage.”—Cynthia Ozick

“To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal, but you have to care.”—Anne Lamott

“Anyone can become a writer. The trick is staying a writer.”—Harlan Ellison

“Beginning writers must appreciate the prerequisites if they hope to become writers. You pay your dues—which take years.”—Alex Haley

“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thought uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”—Henry David Thoreau

“Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.”—Olin Miller

Every writer has desert times. Those times however, are not to be feared……Writing interludes give you room to hear the voice of God. His spirit has space, at last, to write from your innermost being and with joy.”---Linda Anderson.

“While the false self feasts on praise, your identity as a Christian writer is not found in the opinion of others. ….Criticism should inform us, but never defeat us.” –Norman G Wilson

“The fact that some publisher doesn’t want to publish my words doesn’t mean they lack value. I don’t expect the act of publishing to validate my life. My words are meaningful. They are my ministry, even if they are only meant as a ministry to myself, or my wife or the authors I represent.”-Chip MacGregor.

“I want to write not what the market says I should write, but what I believe God is leading me to write.”----Vicki Caruana

“ It’s helpful to remind yourself that media attention is not coming because you’re anything special, but rather because your book somehow became noteworthy. You have to continue doing what you were doing and not start thinking the world has finally discovered you.”—Jerry Jenkins

“ I firmly believe that, as the cliché goes, laughter is the shortest distance between two people. You disarm people when you write in a funny way, so people begin to listen to what you have to say.”-Lorilee Craker

The task of a writer is to soak up dibs and dabs of this and that, swish them around in mind, and slowly release words or marks in a thin stream across a page.”—Carol J. Rottman

“ A writer is not a confectioner, not a dealer in cosmetics, not an entertainer; he is a man bound under compulsion, by the realization of his duty and by his conscience. “- Anton Chekhov

" A house without books is like a room without windows."-Horace Mann

“ God doesn’t measure success by the size of a royality check or the popularity of the writer. Nor is He impressed with prolific output or a long list of publishing credits…..You are His manuscript, and His goal is to refine you until you reflect His image in every corner of the world where He has placed both you and your manuscripts.”—Ethel Herr

"May you like John, depict the heavens. May you, like Paul, love the churches. May you like Luke, connect with a Theophilus in your world. May you pick up the pen and write for the soul." Max Lucado.