50 Inspirational Quotes about "Writing"

Do you aspire or dream to be a writer? Or inspired by the authors whose words were timeless masterpiece that touches a part of your soul whenever you read them? Or just curious about the creative process of every writer? Here's what some of the renowned authors has to say about "writing" and advice on how to be one:


1. All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind. --Kahlil Gibran
2. I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work. --Pearl S. Buck
3. If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write. --Martin Luther
4. A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. --Richard Bach
5. Writing is something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who wanna tell you a story but don’t wanna make eye contact while telling it. --John Green

6. The story must strike a nerve — in me. My heart should start pounding when I hear the first line in my head. I start trembling at the risk. --Susan Sontag
7. You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things. --Neil Gaiman
8. Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.--David Foster Wallace
9. Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow. --A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
10. If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster. --Isaac Isimov

11. Write while the heat is in you… The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. --Henry David Thoreau
12. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. --Ernest Hemingway
13. Writing is the painting of the voice. --Voltaire
14. How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. --Henry David Thoreau
15. We write to taste life in the moment and in retrospect. --Anais Nin

16. There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn’t because the book is not there and worth being written – it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself. --Mark Twain
17. There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. --Maya Angelou
18. Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. --William Wordsworth
19. Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. --Anton Chekhov
20. There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed. --Ernest Hemingway

Your Elusive Creative Genius - Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth M. Gilbert is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist, and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love" which had spent over 200 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller's List, and which was also made into a film by the same name in 2010 starring Julia Roberts.

Gilbert discussed the odds in keeping up with the creative pursuits and shared how she learned to cope with these pressures. Unlike other professions, creative professionals (either in writing, painting, artists and others)had this reputation of a battle with depression and mental instability. She cited the pressures she experienced after her success with Eat, Pray, Love and how she learned from the creative process of notable writers and recognizing that there is a higher being apart from herself that is responsible for her creative genius. 

Gilbert's best advice for people in the creative field:

"And what I have to sort of keep telling myself when I get really psyched out about that is don't be afraid. Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then "Olé!" And if not, do your dance anyhow. And "Olé!" to you, nonetheless. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. "Olé!" to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up." - Elizabeth Gilbert

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Here's the complete transcript from TEDTAlks:

I am a writer. Writing books is my profession but it's more than that, of course. It is also my great lifelong love and fascination. And I don't expect that that's ever going to change. But, that said, something kind of peculiar has happened recently in my life and in my career, which has caused me to have to recalibrate my whole relationship with this work. And the peculiar thing is that I recently wrote this book, this memoir called "Eat, Pray, Love" which, decidedly unlike any of my previous books, went out in the world for some reason, and became this big, mega-sensation, international bestseller thing. The result of which is that everywhere I go now, people treat me like I'm doomed. Seriously -- doomed, doomed! Like, they come up to me now, all worried, and they say, "Aren't you afraid you're never going to be able to top that? Aren't you afraid you're going to keep writing for your whole life and you're never again going to create a book that anybody in the world cares about at all, ever again?"

The Alchemist - A Fable About Following Your Dreams (Book Review)

The Alchemist (O Alquimista)  is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho which was first published in 1988, originally written in Portuguese. The book follows the story of the Andalusian shepherd boy, Santiago, who after dreaming about finding treasure in Egypt decided to follow his "Personal Legend" despite odds along the way.

It has inspired many people to examine their lives from deep within if they are really living their "Personal Legend", following their dreams or just getting by with life.

The story of the first publication of the book is also an inspiration on how Paulo Coelho strived to follow his dream of making this book known and sell. Indeed, following his own Personal Legend, the book now has already sold 65 million copies, translated into 80 languages. 

Here are some of the inspiring quotes from the "The Alchemist":

10 Inspiring Quotes from the Wonder Woman Movie 2017 and How You Can Be a Superhero

Image Credit: comicbook/dc

We love watching superhero movies because we are somehow thrilled with the idea of having the same superpowers they have, for example to solve our daily work problems: I mean, as simple as the ability to high jump or fly going to your office when you are already late to avoid being mobbed, lap-dashed, trampled in riding the train with the thousands of other commuters in the morning and no, of course, the super strength power of Wonder Woman that can lift tanks is not needed in this case, just the high-jump.

Image Credit: gamespot.com/wonderwomanlifts

Another reason is that we are hoping that a superhero will save us or save the world from evil and cruelty around the world, where the idea of using the "Lasso of Truth (Hestia) can be useful in knowing the truth behind the mind and motives of our leaders. 

50 Best Inspirational Quotes about Courage

Setbacks are part of life and surely each of one of us has somewhat experience, in differing degrees, that "bitter life moments" and "the dark valleys". It could be through our financial losses, sickness, death of loved-ones, career uncertainties, business failures, broken relationships.

Even if you are someone who is intentionally and passionately pursuing your dreams and goals, there will come a time when your knees will shake in fear and doubt. Fear in not knowing what the future holds for you in the midst of setbacks or the feeling of helplessness.

However, we should remember that struggles and failures are part of the breakthroughs in our lives and what separates the champions from losers is on how we are going to face the challenges as they come.

Be inspired by these words from people who have encountered trials, failure, doubt but choose to face up to the challenges in their lives.

1.  “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” - Soren Kierkegaard

2. “The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.”- R. G. Ingersoll

3.      “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

4.      “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

5.      "What you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." – Goethe

6.      “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

7.      “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”- Nelson Mandela

8.      “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”- Walt Disney

9.      “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”-Muhammad Ali

10.  “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”- E. E. Cummings

11.  “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”- Winston Churchill

12.  “Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.”- Rabindranath Tagore

13.  “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”- T. S. Eliot

J.K. Rowling Commencement Address at Harvard University June 2008

Joanne "Jo" Rowling, popularly known in her pen name "J.K. Rowling", is a British novelist who has written the famous Harry Potter. fantasy series, which sold more than 400 million copies and won multiple awards. But Rowling is also an inspiration to many because of her rags to riches story, in this commencement address she shared the benefits of failure and what it has taught her that led to her success in life, the true value of imagination and friends.

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"The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination"

Commencement Address of J.K. Rowling (author of the best selling Harry Potter Book Series) during the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association, June 2008

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

8 Secrets of the Truly Rich by Bo Sanchez (Book Review)

Bo Sanchez expounded the difference of being "rich" and "truly rich' in his book" 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich". He also discussed the reasons why people remain poor no matter how much money they earn and what are solutions or steps to take in order to move pass from these hurdles. The author proves that it is possible to gain material and spiritual wealth at the same time.

What You'll Learn:

• Rich vs. Truly Rich. We become "truly rich' when we are not only wealthy with our money but as well as in other areas of our life: love, family, spirituality....We earn to give. 
• How to change our inner "Poverty Mindset". Three giant monsters of poverty that we need to get rid: 1. we really don't want to be rich subconsciously  2. we're financially stupid 3. we insist on walking, instead of riding, vehicles towards wealth

8 Secrets of the Truly Rich

Secret #1. Be Totally Responsible for Your Success

Truly Rich Principles:  Blame robs you of your power to determine your life. /You become what you repeatedly do. You become poor because you have the poor man's money habits.