Writing Excellence Quotes

#1. Not that length and weight alone indicate excellence; many epic tales are pretty much epic crap.

Stephen King

#2. I associated excellence in writing with New York City.

Garth Risk Hallberg

#3. For excellence, the presence of others is always required.

Hannah Arendt

#4. The basic rule [of writing] given us was simple and heartbreaking. A story to be effective had to convey something from the writer to the reader, and the power of its offering was the measure of its excellence. Outside of that, there were no rules.

John Steinbeck

#5. Art is a journey of excellence not a goal of perfection.

Jacqueline Patricks

#6. Some people may be more gifted than others, but excellence in writing, as in any art form or craft, involves discipline and practice.

James B. Stewart

#7. Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat; long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning.

Hesiod

#8. It is as well that the world knows only a fine piece of work and not also its origins, the conditions under which it came into being; for knowledge of the sources of an artist's inspiration would often confuse readers and shock them, and the excellence of the writing would be of no avail.

Thomas Mann

#9. If you're a writer, write. And always strive for excellence.

Linda W. Yezak

#10. Only the mediocre artist is always at his best.

Victor J. Banis

#11. I want to explore and do things with excellence. I want to write songs that resonate with me and will resonate with a live audience. I'm exploring fresh sounds.

Anthony Evans

#12. To this end, nothing is to be more carefully consulted than plainness. In a lady's attire this is the single excellence; for to be what some people call fine, is the same vice, in that case, as to be florid is in writing or speaking.

Joseph Addison

#13. Learn the rules before you break them.

Steven Taylor Goldsberry

#14. The faults of great authors are generally excellences carried to an excess.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

#15. As if you can measure literary excellence with precise instruments; as if there were a science of writing, governed by equations that reveal immutable truths.

Justine Picardie

#16. Purists behave as if there was a vintage year when language achieved a measure of excellence which we should all strive to maintain. In fact, there was never such a year. The language of Chaucer's or Shakespeare's time was no better and no worse than that of our own - just different.

Jean Aitchison