15 Favorite Writing Quotes from the KU WAC Team

When asked for their favorite quotes on writing,  see what some of the Kaplan University Writing Across the Curriculum Team had to say.

Favorite Quotes about Writing

1. “Some people will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ – which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.”  – Maya Angelou  Contributed by Amy Sexton

2.  “A word after a word after a word is power.” – Margaret Atwood  Contributed by Chrissine Rios

3. “Say what you are going to say.  Say it.  Say that you said it.” – Marianne Russell high school English teacher on how to complete and essay            Contributed by Allen Miller

4. First make a mess; then see what you can do with it. — Unknown     Contributed by Robley Hood

5. “You write the first draft with your heart, and you rewrite with your head.” – James Ellision                   Contributed by Chrissine Rios

6. “I once asked this literary agent what kind of writing paid the best…he said, ‘Ransom notes.'” – Harry Zimm (played by Gene Hackman) in the film Get Shorty       Contributed by Barbara Green

7. Words are a lens to focus one’s mind. – Ayn Rand          Contributed By Ellen Manning

8.   “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.” – Ernest Hemmingway           Contributed by Chrissine Rios  

9. To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music the words make.   – Truman Capote           Contributed by Sheryl Bone

10. Your job isn’t to find . . . ideas but to recognize them when they show up. – Stephen King              Contributed by Robley Hood

11. “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” -Thomas Mann          Contributed by Chrissine Rios

12. “Wit has truth in it … wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.” – Dorothy Parker as cited in CWQ                Contributed by Danielle Miller

13. Get in the habit of welcoming your own words. You are making a map of the days you live.” – Naomi Shihab Nye         Contributed by Robley Hood

14. “You can’t put together a memoir without cannibalizing your own life for parts. The work battens on your memories. And it replaces them.” – Annie Dillard              Contributed by Chrissine Rios

15. The part you must jettison is riot only the best written part; it is also; oddly, that part’ which was to have been the very’ point. It is the original key passage, the passage on which the rest was to hang; and from which you’ yourself drew the courage to begin.  – Annie Dillard   Contributed by Melody Pickle