A word out of place spoils the most beautiful thought. ---Voltaire
Begin humbly. Labor faithfully. Be patient. ---Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Cultivate accuracy in words and things; amass sound knowledge; avoid affectation; write all topics which interest you. ---F.W. Newman
Don't be afraid. Fight right along. Hope right along. ---Samuel Longhorne Clemens
Every good writer has much idiom; it is the lift and spirit of Language. ---W.S. Landor
Follow this: If you write from the heart, you will write to the heart. ---Beaconsfield
Genius may begin great works, but only continued labor completes them. ---Joubert
Half the writer's art consists in learning what to leave in the ink pot. ---Stevenson
It is by suggestion, not cumulation, that profound impressions form on the imagination. ---Lowell
Joy in one's work is an asset beyond the valuing in mere dollars. ---C.D. Warner
Keep writing, and profit by criticism. Use for a motto Michelangelo's wise words: "Genius is infinite patience." ---Louisa May Alcott
Lord, let me never tag a moral to a story, nor tell a story without a meaning. ---Van Dyke
More failures come from vanity than carelessness. ---Joseph Jefferson
Never do a "pot boiler." Let one of your best things go to boil the pot. ---O. Henry
Originality does not mean oddity, but freshness. It means vitality, not novelty. ---Hapgood
Pluck feathers from the wings of your imagination, and stick them in the tail of your judgment. ---Horace Greeley
Quintessence approximates genius. Gather much thought into few words. ---Schopenhauer
Revise. Revise. Revise. ---E.E. Hale
Simplicity has been held a mark of truth: It is also a mark of genius. ---Carlyle
The first principle of composition of whatever sort is that it should be natural and appear to have happened so. ---Frederick Macmonnies
Utilize your enthusiasms. Get the habit of happiness in work. ---Beveridge
Very few voices but sound repellent under violent exertion. ---G.E. Lessing
Whatever in this world one has to say, there is a word, and just one word, to express it. Seek that out and use it. ---de Maupassant
Oh, yes! believe me, you must draw your pen
Not once, nor twice but o'er and o'er again
Through what you've written, if you would entice
The man that reads you once to read you twice.
---Horace
Zeal with scanty capacity often accomplsihes more than capacity with no zeal at all. ---George Eliot
I share Keith's disappointment that there was no entry for X. Um, "X-Men: The Last Stand deserved a better script"?