From Lightning Bugs to Doing the Dishes

Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”

I can see you nodding. Read on for more great quotes on writing:

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Anton Chekhov

“If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison

“The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.” Isaac Bashevis Singer

“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.” Oscar Wilde

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” William Wordsworth

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” Elmore Leonard

“Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.” Orson Scott Card

“A poem begins with a lump in the throat.” Robert Frost

“Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.” Author Unknown

“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.” Peter De Vries

“I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.” English Professor (name unknown) Ohio University

“Language is the dress of thought.” Samuel Johnson

“A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell another one.” Baltasar Gracian

“When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.” Enrique Jardiel Poncela

“God is the perfect Poet.” Robert Browning

“A man will turn over half a library to make a book.” Samuel Johnson

“A notepad by the bedside accounts for half the earning of my livelihood. If it weren’t for bedtime, half my novels would still be stuck at dock.” Ever Garrison

“There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes.” William Makepeace Thackeray

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” Thomas Jefferson

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Robert Frost

“Eloquence is the poetry of prose.” William Cullen Bryant (a relative in my family tree!)

“The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” Agatha Christie