"Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything. To Why am I here? To uselessness. It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it's a cactus."

Bagnold, Enid | Writers and Writing | 2 bookmarks

"A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream."

Bachelard, Gaston | Writers and Writing | 2 bookmarks

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."

Bach, Richard | Writers and Writing | 5 bookmarks

"Writers must fortify themselves with pride and egotism as best they can. The process is analogous to using sandbags and loose timbers to protect a house against flood. Writers are vulnerable creatures like anyone else. For what do they have in reality? Not sandbags, not timbers. Just a flimsy reputation and a name."

Aldiss, Brian | Writers and Writing | 2 bookmarks

"I dare say I am compelled, unconsciously compelled, now to write volume after volume, as in past years I was compelled to go to sea, voyage after voyage. Leaves must follow upon each other as leagues used to follow in the days gone by, on and on to the appointed end, which, being truth itself, is one -- one for all men and for all occupations."

Conrad, Joseph | Wordiness | 1 bookmarks

"Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to measure itself, it provokes me forever, it says sarcastically, Walt you contain enough, why don't you let it out then?"

Whitman, Walt | Speech | 1 bookmarks

"My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine -- everybody drinks water."

Twain, Mark | Books - Reading | 4 bookmarks

"Whenever books are burned men also in the end are burned."

Heine, Heinrich | Censorship | 3 bookmarks

"A book that is shut is but a block."

Fuller, Thomas | Books - Reading | 2 bookmarks

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

Cicero, Marcus T. | Books - Reading | 4 bookmarks