10 Quotes on Writing by Harper Lee

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1. “Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.”

2. “Writing is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer. There are people who write, but I think they're quite different from people who must write.”

3. “Naturally, you don't sit down in "white hot inspiration" and write with a burning flame in front of you. But since I knew I could never be happy being anything but a writer, and Mockingbird put itself together for me so accommodatingly, I kept at it because I knew it had to be my first novel, for better or for worse.”

4. “Writing is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward.”

5. “Writing is something you'll never learn in any university or at any school. It's something that is within you, and if it isn't there, nothing can put it there.”

6. “I like to write. Sometimes I'm afraid that I like it too much because when I get into work I don't want to leave it. As a result I'll go for days and days without leaving the house or wherever I happen to be. I'll go out long enough to get papers and pick up some food and that's it. It's strange, but instead of hating writing I love it too much.”

7. “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”

8. “Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.”

9. “To be a serious writer requires discipline that is iron fisted. It's sitting down and doing it whether you think you have it in you or not. Everyday. Alone. Without interruption. Contrary to what most people think, there is no glamour to writing. In fact, it's heartbreak most of the time.”

10. “People who write for reward by way of recognition or monetary gain don't know what they're doing. They're in the category of those who write; they are not writers. Writing is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward. Writing is selfish and contradictory in its terms. First of all, you're writing for an audience of one, you must please the one person you're writing for. Yourself.”

Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee was born April 28, 1926, Monroeville, AL. Died February 19, 2016, Monroeville, AL. Harper Lee was an American novelist best known for he work, To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1961 Harper Lee won a Pulitzer Prize for To Kill a Mockingbird, becoming a classic of modern American literature. In 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature.