30 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Quotes By Stephen King
Last Updated on January 30, 2023
Looking for the best quotes from On Writing By Stephen King? Read this post till the end!
Stephen King’s book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” came out in 2000. It is not a work of fiction. In this book, King talks about his thoughts and experiences as a successful author.
He also gives tips on how to write and tell stories. The book has two parts: the first is a memoir about King’s life and how he became a writer, and the second is a guide to writing with exercises and tips for people who want to become writers.
“On Writing” is a must-read for anyone interested in the art of writing and the life of one of the most popular and successful authors of our time. It is full of personal stories and useful advice.
King’s quotes provide valuable advice and perspective on the writing process, storytelling, and the craft of writing. So read this article till the end and don’t forget to share it with your friends and family. Also, I have added some On writing quotes by Stephen King including the page numbers too. So enjoy and highlight those quotes if you like.
“On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” is a bestselling non-fiction book by Stephen King, published in 2000. This book is a must-read for aspiring writers, literature lovers, and fans of Stephen King.
Get it on: amazon.in | amazon.com
Best On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King Quotes
1. “I have spent a good many years since―too many, I think―being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all.” ― Page 50; Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
2. “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.” ― Page 265; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
3. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
― Page 104; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
4. “Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room.” ― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
5. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
6. “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” ― Page 125; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
7. “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.” ― Page 269; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
8. “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference.” ― Page 74; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
"Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference." Click To Tweet
9. “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” ― Page 57; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
10. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” ― Page 104; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
11. “Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
12. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
13. “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” ― Page 222; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
14. “In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
15. “If you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
16. “Just remember that Dumbo didn’t need the feather; the magic was in him. ” ― Page 127; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“Just remember that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was in him." Click To Tweet17. “So okay― there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You’ve blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
18. “You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” ― Page 146; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
19. “So we read to experience the mediocre and the outright rotten; such experience helps us to recognize those things when they begin to creep into our own work, and to steer clear of them. We also read in order to measure ourselves against the good and the great, to get a sense of all that can be done. And we read in order to experience different styles” ― Page 147; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
20. “I’m a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, most fiction. I don’t read in order to study the craft; I read because I like to read”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
21. “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot if difference. They don’t have to makes speeches. Just believing is usually enough.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
22. “Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
23. “Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
24. “When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.” ― Page 201; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
25. “Writing is seduction. Good talk is part of seduction. If not so, why do so many couples who start the evening at dinner wind up in bed?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
26. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
27. “If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Page 50
28. “Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.” ― Page Number 77; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
29. “Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.” Click To Tweet
30. “I’m not asking you to come reverently or unquestioningly; I’m not asking you to be politically correct or cast aside your sense of humor (please God you have one). This isn’t a popularity contest, it’s not the moral Olympics, and it’s not church. But it’s writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can’t or won’t, it’s time for you to close the book and do something else.” ― Page Number 107; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
FAQs
What Is the Focus of “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”?
“On Writing” is both a memoir and a book about how to write. It has two parts: the first is Stephen King’s life story and how he became a writer, and the second is a guide to writing with exercises and tips for people who want to write.
What Kind of Advice Does Stephen King Offer in “on Writing”?
In “On Writing,” Stephen King gives tips on how to write, how to tell stories, and how to write well. He gives aspiring authors useful tips and exercises and talks about his own experiences and insights as a successful author.
