25 of The Best Author Quotes For Inspiration

In this article, we round up the best author quotes to inspire your writing.

Being an aspiring author can be a challenge. Writer’s block, a lack of ideas, and publishing issues commonly frustrate authors who are looking to make a name for themselves. At the same time, there are plenty of sources of inspiration from current, successful authors.

This is where a few helpful author quotes can make a difference. Take a look at the list below and use these quotes as a source of inspiration to help you become a better writer and a successful author.

Top Author Quotes for Inspiration

1. J.K. Rowling

“Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.”

J.K. Rowling

2. Sylvia Plath

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Sylvia Plath

3. Robert Benchley

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous. “

Robert Benchley

4. Dr. Seuss

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.”

Dr. Seuss

5. Charles Dickens

“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.”

Charles Dickens

6. Maya Angelou

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

Maya Angelou

7. Ray Bradbury

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”

Ray Bradbury

8. Brad Meltzer

“We are all ordinary. We are all boring. We are all spectacular. We are all shy. We are all bold. We are all heroes. We are all helpless. It just depends on the day.”

Brad Meltzer
Brad Meltzer

9. Jeanette Walls

“Things usually work out in the end.” “What if they don’t?” “That just means you haven’t come to the end yet.”

Jeanette Walls

10. J.R.R. Tolkien

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong. Does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

11. Carl Sagan

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time–proof that humans can work magic.”

Carl Sagan

12. William Faulkner

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

William Faulkner

13. Erica Jong

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.”

Erica Jong

14. Rainer Maria Rilke

“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

15. Norman Mailer

“Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.”

Norman Mailer

16. Virginia Woolf

“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”

Virginia Woolf

17. Saul Bellow

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”

Saul Bellow

18. C.S. Lewis

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different?”

C.S. Lewis

19. George R.R. Martin

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”

George R.R. Martin

20. A.A. Milne

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

A.A. Milne

21. Herman Hesse

“Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.”

Herman Hesse

22. Mark Twain

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Mark Twain

23. Chuck Palahniuk

“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.”

Chuck Palahniuk

24. Barbara Kingsolver

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”

Barbara Kingsolver

25. Somerset Maugham

“If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.”

Somerset Maugham

The Final Word on Using Author Quotes

Writing a book isn’t always easy. But these author quotes show that you can reach the end of your creative work with persistence, grit and a little heart. Quotes from other authors can often act as a source of inspiration for better ideas. Now, all you need to do is write!

Want more? Check out our list of the most inspiring creativity quotes.

Author

  • Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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