Writing is An Addiction

 

We’re having some work done on our condo and it will be a hectic week, so I’m taking the easy way out and populating today’s blog post with quotes about being a writer.

Why We Write

“I write for the same reason I breathe—because if I didn’t, I would die.” Isaac Asimov

“We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.” Somerset Maugham

“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can’t help it.” Leo Rosten

“If you can see yourself surviving the rest of your life without writing, then don’t try writing. It’s a passion. It’s something that pushes you, that thrills you.” Stephen Bly

“You might be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.” Stephen Leigh

“Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

It’s Not an Easy Job

“Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you—as if you haven’t been told a million times already—that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.” Harlan Ellison

“I would never encourage anyone to be a writer. It’s too hard.” Eudora Welty

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades (1947)

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Stay tune next week for quotes on other problems writers face.

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The image at the top of this post is an illustration created by Frank Merrill for a 19^th century printing of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It is in the public domain because of its age.