Photo by Pixabay
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Over the years, as I've honed my craft of writing, I've learned from many different writers. Whether through a lecture, a workshop, a book, or documentary, these authors - and some other artists - have inspired me and spurred me on. I've filled journals with their quotes.
For my January post, I thought I'd share some Advice from Admired Artists in the hope that at least one of them, new or familiar, will encourage and inspire you in your writing today and into this year.
In no particular order, here are 23 quotes for 2023:
There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.
- Beatrix Potter
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The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.
- Agatha Christie
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One of the best forms for a long narrative, as was found in The Hobbit, ... is the pilgrimage on journey with an object. That was the form I adopted.
- J.R.R. Tolkien
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Good ink cannot be the quick kind, ready to pour out of a bottle. You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort. That is the problem with modern ink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn. But when you push an inkstick along an inkstone, you take the first step to cleansing your mind and your heart. You push and you ask yourself, what are my intentions? What is in my heart that matches my mind?
- Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter
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Everybody is creative, and everybody is talented. I just don't think everybody is disciplined. I think that's a rare commodity.
- Al Herschfeld
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Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure --- just a big field to wander in.
- Natalie Goldberg
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Perhaps in their small way, writers can answer for those who are voiceless in their extreme deprecation and suffering. But at best, in the very smallest scheme, writing can provide a moment of grace, both for she who writes and he who reads, in a very dark world.
- Cecile Pineda
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The most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.
- William Makepeace Thackeray
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On the page, punctuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune.
- Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots and Leaves
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I never could have done what I have done ... without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.
- Charles Dickens
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If I didn't know the ending of a story, I wouldn't begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraph, my last page first.
- Katherine Anne Porter
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Photo from Pixabay
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Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book: give it, give it all, give it now.
- Annie Dillard
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No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader.
- Robert Frost
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My first novel was turned down by 31 publishers.
- James Patterson
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Writing a book is a task of will, time, and the courage to fail if required.
- Dr. Barbara Sinor, PH.D
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When the words mean even more than the writer knew they meant, then the writer has been listening. And sometimes when we listen, we are led into places we do not expect, into adventures we do not always understand.
- Madeleine L'Engle
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The writer's job is to stare.
- Kate DiCamillo
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You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better.
- Anne Lamott
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Excellence does not require perfection.
- Henry James
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When you are describing a shape, or sound, or tint,
Don't state the matter plainly, but put it in a hint,
And learn to look at all things, with a sort of mental squint.
- Lewis Carroll
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Broadly speaking, short words are best and the old words, when short, are best of all.
- Winston Churchill
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Writing should be like a cottage garden, with no straight path; it should meander, around corners, through creaking gates, looking for the secret places - like life.
- Susan Branch
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Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.
- Charles de Lint
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Joy enjoys collecting inspiring quotes from other artists. She loves learning about their process, and what helps them get the job done. She writes from her home in rural Alberta, where she lives with The Cowboy, a half grown puppy named Chara, and a new kitten called Rhubarb. Find more of her Joy infused writing at Scraps of Joy.
