Wilbur Smith Quotes

My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.

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

Like most art forms, writing is part instinct and part craft. The craft part is the part that can be taught, and that can make a crucial difference to lots of writers.

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 think writing well takes a little bit of talent and an awful lot of work.

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

If you want to be a writer, don't worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles.

I'm a pretty decent writer. It comes easy to me. I don't agonize over sentences. I write like I talk. I try to make them good books.

I wanted to write stories for myself. At first it was purely an aesthetic thing about craft. I just wanted to become good at the art of something. And writing was very private.

You have to go where the good writing is.

Give me good writing, and I'll play it all day.

Do not copy my style! The first rule of writing is write about what you know, not what you think you know. So, think about what you've done in your life and write about that.

Writing teaches writing.

It takes practice to do anything unique within this field, period, in writing, practice doing anything unique in writing.

To develop your own voice, you have to keep writing a ton, and this is something where I think Twitter is helpful. I use it to write a ton of jokes. You have to write a ton of bad stuff before you know what you're good at. And that's what some people I think have trouble with, the thought of getting past the bad stuff.

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

If you want to be a good writer, be the best writer in the world. That's what I've done.

I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other.

Write the best book you can, the one that demands to be written, no matter what genre it is. Even a trend the trades tell you has gone stale can be revitalized by a superb piece of writing. It'll never be revitalized by someone jumping on a trend bandwagon.

I'm very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I've never really considered myself a writer.

Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer.

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry - writing at writing.

I have grown in my writing and I care about it now and I know how important it is to write stuff.

I'm a great believer in the experiential theory of writing.

Remember to write for yourself, not for a market and give yourself time to develop your own style, your own voice. It takes a lifetime. Enjoy it!