Alexandre Dumas

 “As a general rule...people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.”

Stephen King

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

Anaïs Nin

 “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”

Mark Twain

 “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

Anita Diamant

 “Of all life’s pleasures, only love owes no debt to death.”

Anita Diamant

 “I tell writers to keep reading, reading, reading. Read widely and deeply. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letters. And only write what you love.”

Anita Diamant

"The painful things seemed like knots on a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place."

Anita Diamant

 "If you want to understand any woman you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. The more a daughter knows about the details of her mother's life - without flinching or whining - the stronger the daughter."

Patrick Ness

 “You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.”

Anne Frank

 “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

William Shakespeare

 There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

Anton Chekov

 “Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

Stephen King

 “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Douglas Adams

 “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

Joanne Harris

 “Everything comes home, my mother used to say; every word spoken, every shadow cast, every footprint in the sand. It can't be helped; it's part of what makes us who we are. ”

Joanne Harris

 “She always had that about her, that look of otherness, of eyes that see things much too far, and of thoughts that wander off the edge of the world.”

Joe Hill

"What a blessed - if painful - thing this business of being alive is."

Jack Kornfield

"The trouble is, you think you have time."

Robert Duvall

“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most.

That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies.

You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.”

Robert Duvall as Hub McCann in Second Hand Lions

Leonard Cohen

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in ..."

James Baldwin

 "We can disagree and still love each other, provided your disagreement is not rooted in my oppression, and the denial of my humanity and right to exist." 

JRR Tolkien

 “Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”

Max Ehramm (Desiderata)

"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and stars. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

Breyten Breytenbach

jy strek soos ’n bergketting
oor die landskap van my lewe
jou punte en jou wolke sluit my einders in
soms so digby dat ek jou in verbeelding
met die vingers aan kan roer
soms so ver dat die tyd geen sin
meer het nie

ek weet die vrede lê in jou
die son kom uit jou klowe op
en sink weer daarin weg
wanneer dit aand word kan ek jou ruik
jou soetigheid maak my hart ’n klipspringer
en hoog teen jou spitse spoel die nabye
spoel die hemel se skuim

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 “…You-You alone will have stars as no one else has them… In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars will be laughing when you look at the sky at night. You, only you, will have stars that can laugh! And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me… You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure… It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh.”

Donald Trump

 “Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken.”

Nikki Rowe

 “Let there be room left in your heart for the unimaginable. Serendipity has a way of showing itself just when you feel like giving up.”