Virginia Woolf Quotes

Words are the basic tools, if you are a writer. But why? Why do you choose one set of tools rather than another?

Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can't use the wrong words. But on the other hand here am I sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, and visions, and so on, and can't dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm. Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than any words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it.

When I write, I'm talking to myself constantly to make sure that it sounds OK; it has kind of a nice rhythm and a nice jump to it.

All people in the world - who are not hermits or mutes - speak words. They speak different languages, but they speak words. They say, "How are you" or "I'm not feeling well" all over the world. These common words - these common elements that we have between us - the writer has to take some verbs and nouns and pronouns and adjectives and adverbs and arrange them in a way that sound fresh.

Is there no room for art in the spoken language? What is the use of creating an unnatural language to the exclusion of the natural one?

A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.

I write in words. I don't write in sounds or in shapes or in flavors.

All the fun is in how you say a thing.

I'm tired of wasting letters when punctuation will do, period.

That isn't writing at all, it's typing.

Words are the basic tools, if you are a writer.

Writers are the ones who figure out how to put their observations into words.

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

I spend a lot of time writing. I get inspiration from texts rather than images.

I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.

Writing and telling are almost the same, the way I do it.

I'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

I love the power of words - no music or special effects - and I want to demonstrate that power.

For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz.

All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

For purposes of marketing, writers are designated as poets, novelists, or something else. But writing is about matchmaking, an attempt to marry sensations with apt words.

I found a great many pieces of punctuation and typography lying around dormant when I came along - and I must say I had a good time using them.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

I know a lot about words. I get paid to write stories, so I get to talk with people about the meaning behind words all day.

When I was younger, I would write a ton, mostly because my mom told me I had incredible creativity and a gift of using words, only these were words that didn't get me in trouble.