My Twenty Best Inspirational Quotations on Reading and Writing

I love finding inspirational quotations. That’s especially true when I read a quote regarding the love of reading books, or about writing them.

I always enjoy the pleasure others take in reading and writing. Even quotes about the challenges and pitfalls of writing interest me. They help me understand I’m not alone when I hit rough patches as I craft my next novel.

So I thought it would be a nice idea to put together a list of my favorite quotes. Here are twenty of the best, in my opinion. Some of these are from authors I much admire, while others are from people I don’t know or authors I haven’t read yet.

Let me know the ones you like the most. Or, better yet, share quotes that you believe are better. Leave a comment below or send your ideas using the contact page on this site.

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“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

“I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”
― J.K. Rowling

A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.
— Neil Gaiman

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
― W. Somerset Maugham

“She was fascinated with words. To her, words were things of beauty, each like a magical powder or potion that could be combined with other words to create powerful spells.”
― Dean Koontz, Lightning

“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”
― Carl Sagan

“There are essentially two things that will make you wise — the books you read and the people you meet.”
― Jack Canfield

“A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”
― Isaac Asimov

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.”
― Beatrix Potter

“You’re never alone when you’re reading a book.”
― Susan Wiggs

“E.L. Doctorow said once said that ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.”
― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

“A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.”
― Caroline Gordon

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.”
― Walt Disney

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
― George Orwell

“If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.”
—Margaret Atwood

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.”
― Louis L’Amour, Matagorda/The First Fast Draw

“But then why do we write if not to tackle the fears that others look to us to conquer?”
― Joanna Penn, Author 2.0 Blueprint

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