Quotes about Writing · MoveMe Quotes

Stephen King Quote on the Relationship Between Reading and Writing

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Stephen King

Beyond the Quote (343/365)

What happens when you read? Your eyes scan, decode, and lift symbols off pages and implants the information contained into your brain. It’s essentially the same process that a computer follows when it downloads new software/ updates. And as it’s true with computers, the information that’s downloaded/ implanted into our minds may either contain updates/improvements or infections/malware. This is why, just as you have to be very careful with what you download onto your computer, you have to be just as careful (if not more) about what you download into your brain.

“’If my opinion runs more than twenty pages,’ she said, ‘I am disturbed that I couldn’t do it shorter.’ The mantra in her chambers is ‘Get it right and keep it tight.’ She disdains legal Latin, and demands extra clarity in an opinion’s opening lines, which she hopes the public will understand. ‘If you can say it in plain English, you should,’ RBG says. Going through ‘innumerable drafts,’ the goal is to write an opinion where no sentence should need to be read twice. ‘I think that law should be a literary profession,’ RBG says, ‘and the best legal practitioners regard law as an art as well as a craft.’”
Irin Carmon, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Tony Robbins Quote on Accomplishments and Getting Better at Managing Time

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year—and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.”
Tony Robbins

Beyond the Quote (241/365)

When I first started MoveMe Quotes in 2010, I was so self-conscious about my writing and my own voice as a writer that I could only post other people’s words. I wouldn’t add, subtract, change, or elaborate on anything—I shared quotes and that’s it. I refused to share my opinion because I felt unworthy when surrounded by such giants in the writing world. I would constantly ask myself, “Who am I to comment on words from this great person or that amazing writer?” And so that’s how it went for the first five years of MoveMe Quotes. I was merely a quote collector and organizer.

“Instead of carrying that baggage around in our heads or hearts, we put it down on paper. Instead of letting racing thoughts run unchecked or leaving half-baked assumptions unquestioned, we force ourselves to write and examine them. Putting your own thinking down on paper lets you see it from a distance. It gives you objectivity that is so often missing when anxiety and fears and frustrations flood your mind. What’s the best way to start journaling? Is there an ideal time of day? How long should it take? Who cares? How you journal is much less important than why you are doing it: To get something off your chest. To have quiet time with your thoughts. To clarify those thoughts. To separate the harmful from the insightful. There’s no right way or wrong way. The point is just to do it.”
Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 56)

Anne Frank Quote on Reflection and Doing Better Each Day

“How noble and good everyone could be if at the end of the day they were to review their own behavior and weigh up the rights and wrongs. They would automatically try to do better at the start of each new day, and after a while, would certainly accomplish a great deal.”
Anne Frank, via Stillness is the Key (Page 53)

Beyond the Quote (104/365)

How often do you just sit down at the end of a long day and reflect? Reflect on what went well and what didn’t go so well; what could have been improved and what could have been discarded; what made you smile and what made you sad; what you might have done differently and what you think was right on point. See, reflection isn’t just about thinking. What really happens when you take time to reflect on your day is you are taking responsibility for what happened and you are taking control of where you’re heading. Reflection, in this sense, is your Life GPS.

“People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts… For me and most other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. If fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.”
Anne Lamott

Beyond the Quote (43/365)

For all of you who are intimidated by the dreaded blank page and have insecurities and self-doubts about writing (or creating in general), let me reassure you: we ALL start out with really, really shitty first drafts. Not even the best writers in the world (the ones who you envision typing out those perfect, fully formed passages as fast as a court reporters can type) write their final copy on their first try. It just doesn’t happen. So, drop the expectation that you’ll be able to do that yourself (sorry not sorry)!

“Self-reflection has turned out to be one of my most powerful tools in changing my life. It becomes a mirror that helps you see what’s going on in your life, that keeps you from making the same mistakes over and over again, from being on autopilot and failing to course-correct. Having a blog with readers is like having a journal on steroids—it forces you to reflect on what you’re doing in your life, because if you’re going to share what you’re learning with other people, you first have to reflect on what you’ve learned.”
Leo Babauta, Essential Zen Habits (Page 50)

Beyond the Quote (37/365)

Creating space for self-reflective thinking is crucial for self-improvement. If you want to live your best life, you have to take time on a regular basis to take a good look at where you are, where you are going, what has happened, what those “happenings” mean, and what needs to be adjusted so that you can keep moving forward.

Excerpt: Life can be hard. Words can help. Read our 12 empowering Iain Thomas quotes from Every Word You Cannot Say for help finding the right ones.

“There’s no one way [to write] — there’s too much drivel about this subject. You’re who you are, not Fitzgerald or Thomas Wolfe. You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time or place — you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he’s disciplined, doesn’t matter. If he or she is not disciplined, no sympathetic magic will help. The trick is to make time — not steal it — and produce the fiction. If the stories come, you get them written, you’re on the right track. Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.”
Bernard Malamud, via Daily Rituals

Beyond the Quote (16/365)

If Dwayne Johnson AND Jocko Willink both wake up at 4am to get their workouts done, given how wildly busy and in shape they both are, then that must be the best time to wake up and workout, right? To answer that from personal experience, no. I have tried to build that idea into my routine several times and have failed awfully each and every time. I experienced so much misery and resistance that I felt like even if I mustered together ALL of my willpower from a day, it wouldn’t be enough to get me through one 4am workout—let alone a lifetime of them. So, what gave?

“To write a great book, you must first become the book.” ~ Naval Ravikant, via Atomic Habits

Steps to becoming a writer.

Writing is an underestimated art.

“Like your private bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream. Your schedule — in at about the same time every day, out when your thousand words are on paper or disk — exists in order to habituate yourself, to make yourself ready to dream just as you make yourself ready to sleep by going to bed at roughly the same time each night and following the same ritual as you go. In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives. And as your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night —six hours, seven, maybe the recommended eight — so can you train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction.” ~ Stephen King, via Daily Rituals

“I’ve never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think that the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again.” ~ John Updike, via Daily Rituals

“Today many people live the external life exclusively, and when the inner world erupts or stirs, they rush to a therapist or druggist for help. They try to explain profound mythic developments in the language of behavior and experience. Often they have no idea what is happening to them, because they have been so cut off from the deep self. Their own soul is so alien to them that they are unaware of what is going on outside the known realm of fact. Former methods of keeping in touch with the inner life have gone out of mode. Diaries, letters, and deep conversations help focus attention on developments and materials that lie beneath the surface. Only one hundred years ago, without benefit of typewriters and word processors, people kept elaborate, long and detailed diaries and notebooks. We seem to have left behind these methods of reflection in favor of technologies for action.”
Thomas Moore, Original Self | ★ Featured on this book list.

Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck? [Book]

By: Seth Godin

From this Book: 28 Quotes

Book Overview: Made for dipping into again and again, Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck? brings together the very best of Seth Godin’s acclaimed blog and is a classic for fans both old and new. ‘Getting your ducks in a row is a fine thing to do. But deciding what you are going to do with that duck is a far more important issue.’ Since he started blogging in the early 1990s, he has written more than two million words and shaped the way we think about marketing, leadership, careers, innovation, creativity, and more. Much of his writing is inspirational and some is incendiary. Collected here are six years of his best, most entertaining, and most poignant blog posts, plus a few bonus ebooks.

Buy from Amazon! Not on Audible…

Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.

Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

“In the connected age, reading and writing remain the two skills that are most likely to pay off with exponential results. Reading leads to more reading. Writing leads to better writing. Better writing leads to a bigger audience and more value creation. And the process repeats.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?

Stephen King Quote on the Relationship Between Reading and Writing

Beyond the Quote (343/365)

Tony Robbins Quote on Accomplishments and Getting Better at Managing Time

Beyond the Quote (241/365)

A strategy to consider.

Anne Frank Quote on Reflection and Doing Better Each Day

Beyond the Quote (104/365)

Anne Lamott Quote on Writing Really Poorly Before You Ever Write Anything Good

Beyond the Quote (43/365)

Leo Babauta Quote on How Self-Reflection Changed His Life

Beyond the Quote (37/365)

12 Iain Thomas Quotes from Every Word You Cannot Say To Help When Life Is Hard

Bernard Malamud Quote on Writing—There’s No Secret Practice

Beyond the Quote (16/365)

Steps to becoming a writer.

Writing is an underestimated art.

Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck? [Book]

Who are you writing for?