5 quotes I wish I could take credit for, and why I love them.

If you're a writer, or you dabble in the ink pot, you have probably heard the same writing quotes regurgitated at every writer's conference, in every writing manual, from every motivational speaker, over and over again until you can say them in your sleep. You know the ones I'm talking about. And if there is something every writer should avoid, it is a cliche. They're not bad quotes--just overused. So, for this Father's Day post, I wanted to share 5 non-cliched quotes about writing, and a brief bla-bla about why I love them.

1) The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium. ~Norbet Platt

Over the past five years or so, I've been discouraged by the direction of our post-high school educational system. It seems that more and more, the nation is headed down the path of the technical degree. Universities everywhere are reducing budgets for their Arts and Humanities programs, or worse, doing away with them altogether, and a degree, which used to give its bearer an education in a wide array of subjects, now shows a proficiency in one field, and one field only. You can see evidence of this by the dramatic rise in the number of technical schools, and I believe that within the next 20 years, the traditional university will have gone the way of the dodo bird. How tragic, in my opinion. The quote above is one of the many reasons I have such a devotion to writing. Humanities programs, art programs, reading, and especially writing, demonstrate an appreciation for deeper thought--a reluctance to believe everything that we are spoon-fed from the media, and I think that is what makes America great.

2) So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it. ~Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948

Having a great idea, and knowing what I want to say in a story, is one of the most painful things that I endure as a writer, because it is so difficult to capture that idea correctly on paper. And the saddest thing of all is the fact that once I "mar" the paper, as Mr. Acton so eloquently put it, the story begins to evolve and take on a life of its own, and if I'm not careful, my original idea blinks out like a faulty flashlight.

3) It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. ~Vita Sackville-West

This quote is great because it illustrates the importance of capturing a moment and making it everlasting. Memory is unreliable, and it only gets worse with age. Writing something down--be it in a journal or on a blog post--cements a moment in time, and what is more powerful than that?

4) Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

One of the things I strive for the most in my writing is to make it clear, and concise, and easy to understand. When I read something that flows well, I am always in awe of the writer. And this quote gives credit to that labor.

5) The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard, "Diary," February 1895

This is, without a doubt, the most difficult thing a writer must do. See quote #2.

And those, dear reader(s), are 5 of my favorite, non-cliched quotes about writing. What are some of yours?