Inspired quotes!

I started posting some quotes on Facebook and decided that instead I would post them here on my blog! 

I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.
- Erica Jong

This quote by Erica Jong is, I gather, a very real fear of most writers and I can definitely relate. I have read many posts that cover fear of the writer as on the first Wednesday of every month some writers post an ‘Insecure Writers Support Group’ #IWSG post and I have yet to write one, obviously I am too late this month!  

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
- Douglas Adams

I guess this is apt for me. I was given a plaque by my mother that says ‘Don’t rush me, I am waiting for the last minute!’ and this is true and probably explains why I like deadlines as it is the only way I get anything done. 

But I found a few quotes that made me smile, gave me a little hope, and got me thinking and so in no particular order here are some of my favourites…

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.
- Somerset Maugham

I’m not entirely sure that I agree wholeheartedly with this but it may explain why some poorly written novels have been so extremely successful! Naming no shades of names, not even in the twilight hours! 

It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.
- C. J. Cherryh

This quote made me flinch! I am 100% sure that editors are worth their weight in gold or at least good editors. How do you know who is good and who isn’t? How do you find one when your budget is £0 and 0 pence? I am also quite apprehensive of those writers who claim that they don’t need editors because they work for the grammar mafia as they can still miss things. I have actually read traditionally published books and found spelling mistakes. My day job means that I have an insight into print production and I know how many times work can go through the editing process and mistakes found that were previously missed. I just hope I can find an editor, I think one is for life, right? Hehehe

I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.
- Edgar Rice Burroughs

This gave me a little hope as I think I am very much like this. Are you? This next quote confused me and made me think about how true it is, if at all?

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.
- Willa Cather

Who would of thought I would have anything in common with Flaubert? Certainly not me, but when I read this quote, I wanted to throw my hand in the air and shout ‘YESSSSS! He gets me!’ I didn’t but I really wanted to.

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
- Gustave Flaubert

And for those who prefer Faulkner;

The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.
- William Faulkner

I am prone to messaging a work colleague every day and almost always our conversation will generate a story idea, I can’t lay claim to come up with 5 or 6 but maybe 3 but with time I’m sure I will with time.

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
- Orson Scott Card

And to end on a moment of hilarity which some may relate to…

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.
- Truman Capote

I am pretty sure there are many many many many more quotes, that make you laugh, smirk, snigger and cry!

 Whats your favourite? Funniest? Most inspirational? Most ridiculous?