Top 60 Good Writing Quotes

Agents and publishers only want one thing – good writing.

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

All good writing comes out of aloneness.

In good writing, the contemplative and the exciting happen at the same time.

The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.

As an actor, I go where the good writing is. That’s the bottom line.

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

The thing about good writing is it has a music to it.

Well, I’ve always been a character actor, you know, and you always get your share of character actors who are bad guys. So it never surprises me. And if it’s good writing, you can find your way into the part well enough.

The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.

I’ve grown more and more appreciative of good writing, and I now really hope I can become a better and better writer.

When you have really good writing, you’re compelled by the actors who are in it, and you may think it’s the actors or the design or the filmmaking of it, but then you’re like, ‘Well, the base is a really rich story that these guys have created.’

Good writing is everything.

You have to go where the good writing is.

I’ve got plenty of quirks. I go to an office early in the morning. Early in the morning is really good writing time. I take anywhere between six to eight showers a day. I’m not exaggerating. I’m not a germaphobe: it’s all about a fresh start.

I wouldn’t say I have comedy chops. I guess you get lucky with good writing because I don’t think I’m a comedian by any stretch of the imagination.

I subscribe to about 200 blogs. I look for insights and good writing, and I look to get smarter.

I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it’s because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me.

Every actor just wants good writing.

I’m not happy that death is approaching because I like being alive but I’m glad I’ve escaped the two-post-a-day economy of contemporary journalism. Good writing takes time.

When you have good writing, the rhythm of the scene is very apparent. What the scene demands is very clear.

Mainly I love working on good writing.

I don’t think you get to good writing unless you expose yourself and your feelings. Deep songs don’t come from the surface; they come from the deep down. The poetry and the songs that you are suppose to write, I believe are in your heart.

There’s such good writing now on television and I don’t see a lot of great writing on films sadly.

Good directing is good writing and good casting.

It goes without saying that a good Catholic novel should be good craftsmanship, good writing skills. The creative person must always be engaged in the long labor of perfecting the tools of his art. Yet the work itself need not be explicitly evangelical in its themes and plots.

I try to make statements that aren’t broad because that doesn’t make for good writing. I don’t get commentary as my job, because I’m not very good at that. The way I do it is by writing songs, and I have to be small; I have to make the stories a bit personal.

I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.

Good writing shouldn’t be wrapped in cellophane. It should be open to the elements and full of maggots and it should be left to grow and deepen and fester.

Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

You can have good writing, but a great actor will make it feel and sound like great writing. You can have great writing, and mediocre actors will make it feel mediocre. Without the actors, you have nothing.

Good storytelling appeals to me – good writing.

The heart and soul of good writing is research; you should write not what you know but what you can find out about.

I used to be opposed to collaboration, and that’s probably why the music in the past wasn’t as good. Writing with other people, especially the great writers that I’ve had the privilege to write with, it activates something in your mind that you wouldn’t use alone.

I think the benefit of being a writer is that I’m looking for the subtext on the page, because all good writing has subtext. And as a writer, you look at the big scope of things, the big story, rather than just your individual story line, because I think it’s important to know what you’re in and how you fit into it.

Nobody sounds good writing about your divorce, let’s face it.

I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word: a journey.

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

The thing I am attracted to is just good writing and stories that are based somewhat in reality.

I’m very driven by writing. Coming from ‘Saturday Night Live,’ because it’s such a writing job, and we all write our parts on the show and create characters, I’m so respectful of good writing.

Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.

My only close-to-game-plan is to follow good writing. If the writing is in TV or if it’s in theater or in film, that’s it. It doesn’t really matter what the medium is.

My preference is for good writing. It doesn’t matter if it’s for film or TV. Whatever. It starts with the writing. Even though I’ve had problems with writers, it doesn’t matter how great of an actor you are. If the writing is bad, you’re going to struggle.

I get the ideas from everything. Children sometimes think you have to have special experiences to write, but good writing brings out what’s special in ordinary things.

I am baffled by good writing.

Good writing is good writing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t orchestrate it or tweak it.

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

I think that’s what good writing is all about. You go into a genre to talk about other things. Tolkein created a whole world to talk about the world he lived in.

Screenwriting is always about what people say or do, whereas good writing is about a thought process or an abstract image or an internal monologue, none of which works on screen.

I never feel more myself than when I’m writing; I never enjoy any day more than a good writing day.

Good writing is like a windowpane.

I just keep following the good writing. I’m not good enough to make bad writing look good. Some people can, and I admire them for it, but I cannot. I will go down with the ship.

I had the most incredible English and literature teachers in school, and it really influenced my love of storytelling. It’s what made me excited to study journalism in college. I love editorials and documentaries. All of that came from being given the opportunity to lose myself in good writing when I was a kid.

I think the computer is a hindrance to good writing because it is so tempting to leave what you’ve written. If you use a typewriter, you must retype if you make a mistake, and thus, you must re-examine every word.

If the project has good writing and is something I get excited about, then I’ll do the role. And if it’s for TV, I’ll ask myself, ‘Is it a show that I’d watch?’ If it’s a play or movie, I’ll want to know if there’s a good director attached.

Suspense arises naturally from good writing – it’s not a spice to be added separately.

I read a lot of scripts, and there’s a lot of good writing and a lot of OK writing and a lot of crappy writing. And even with the really good writing, it doesn’t necessarily speak to me.

Really good writing, from my perspective, runs a lot like a visual on the screen. You need to create that kind of detail and have credibility with the reader, so the reader knows that you were really there, that you really experienced it, that you know the details. That comes out of seeing.

As an actor, my main focus is finding good writing and attacking a good role.

There’s exceptional work being done on television. Some of our great writers are writing for television. When you have things to choose from, you typically go after the writing – unless you’re going after the money. There are fewer opportunities in film to make money with good writing, unless you’re an action hero.