Writers on Writing
Below are a few of many quotes by famous writers on writing found in Learning by Teaching, Selected Articles on Writing and Teaching, by Donald M. Murray. When I volunteered to become a writing facilitator at MIU in the mid-80s, this was our bible. It had a huge transformational effect on me. I used these writing principles when I helped young students write at the Sylvan Learning Center in North Vancouver, BC, Canada. I also learned writing techniques from Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, and shared them with my students, and later in other writing workshops with older animation students, and friends.
The whole idea is to facilitate the writing process, to see what it would reveal to the writer, rather than focus on producing a specific piece of writing. I remember reading what Donald Graves had to say about teaching writing, something like: “If you take care of the writer, the writing will take care of itself.” Donald Graves studied with Donald Murray, and went on to conduct research in the classroom on how to teach children to becoming writers. His seminal book, Writing: Teachers & Children at Work, has become a classic and revolutionized the teaching of writing in schools.
Here’s what some famous writers, poets, and playwrights have to say about their writing process.
Edward Albee: Writing has got to be an act of discovery. . . .I write to find out what I’m thinking about.
C. Day Lewis: First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it….we do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.
William Faulkner: It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.
E. M. Forster: Think before you speak, is criticism’s motto; speak before you think is creation’s.
Donald Hall: A good writer uses words to discover, and to bring that discovery to other people. He rewrites so that his prose is a pleasure that carries knowledge with it. That pleasure-carrying knowledge comes from self-understanding, and creates understanding in the minds of other people.
William Stafford: I don’t see writing as a communication of something already discovered, as “truths” already known. Rather, I see writing as a job of experiment. It’s like any discovery job; you don’t know what’s going to happen until you try it.
Speaking of William Stafford, you’ll enjoy this poem, William Stafford—A Course in Creative Writing, and others posted on my blog. Also see one of my first poems, Writing—a poem on the writing process.
And you’ll especially enjoy reading New York Times best-selling author (Eat, Pray, Love) Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing, as well as What Rainer Maria Rilke inscribed on the copy of The Duino Elegies he gave his Polish translator, mentioned in Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, Essays by Jane Hirshfield. Also check out: Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights.
Here’s a good resource of timeless advice on writing from famous authors posted on Brain Pickings by Maria Popova @brainpicker. I liked what posted: 14 Authors Share Their Writing Wisdom…by the staff of Writer’s Relief. You may also enjoy Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say. Later added: The perils of praise or blame for young writers. New ways to help students find their own voice.
The Uncarved Blog 
December 30, 2011 at 12:20 am |
[…] Related posts on writing: Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing, Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, and Writing—a poem on the writing process. Share […]
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January 25, 2012 at 6:23 pm |
[…] inspiring posts about writing are: Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing, and Words of Wisdom on Writing from […]
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September 13, 2012 at 9:02 pm |
[…] may also enjoy Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers and the links at the end to other posts on […]
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August 20, 2014 at 9:55 am |
[…] INSPIRATION, a poem by Nathanael Chawkin; Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing; Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers; and Words of Wisdom on Writing from […]
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March 6, 2018 at 5:50 pm |
[…] Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers […]
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August 3, 2018 at 6:05 pm |
14 Authors Share Their Writing Wisdom…by the staff of Writer’s Relief https://arhtisticlicense.com/2016/08/11/14-authors-share-their-writing-wisdom-by-the-staff-of-writers-relief/
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April 13, 2019 at 4:30 pm |
[…] I’ve enjoyed reading about and learning from: Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing | Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, including Natalie Goldberg and her writing techniques from Writing Down the Bones | Words of […]
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August 18, 2019 at 7:36 pm |
[…] posts on writing: Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers | Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing | Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights […]
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December 7, 2019 at 5:28 pm |
[…] and creation. You may also enjoy reading Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing, Writers on Writing—What Writing Means To Writers, and one of my first poems, Writing—a poem on the writing process. Also see Rainer Maria […]
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January 27, 2020 at 2:40 pm |
[…] language to discover meaning in experience and to communicate it.” In this collection of Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers, Hall also […]
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April 30, 2020 at 12:43 pm |
[…] He also touched on the notion that “some courses and programs tell you to write what you know.” I found his take on that advice revealing: “But it’s come to me over the course of the last few books, that if I write what I don’t know, then the process of me discovering the answers to what I don’t know makes the journey of following the story in the book stronger for the reader, because we both get to find the answer together.” (These great writers said the exact same thing.) […]
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November 10, 2020 at 4:19 pm |
[…] Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers | Elizabeth Gilbert—Some Thoughts On Writing | Words of Wisdom on Writing from Literary Lights | Burghild Nina Holzer inspires us to write and discover who we are and what we have to say | John O’Donohue’s 4 short lines say it all for poets | The perils of praise or blame for young writers. New ways to help students find their own voice | Letters to a Young Poet Quotes by Rainer Maria Rilke […]
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November 26, 2020 at 6:23 pm |
[…] Also see this post: Writers on Writing–What Writing Means To Writers. […]
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January 9, 2022 at 5:02 pm |
[…] That last quote reminds me of Donald Hall’s description of a good writer, included in an earlier post: Writers on Writing—What Writing Means To Writers. […]
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