Every so often he had to skim off his bubbling thoughts.

— Jules Renard, Journal 1887-1910

****

One ruins the mind with too much writing. One rusts it by not writing at all.

— Joseph Joubert, The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert

****

With thinking too there is a time for ploughing & a time for harvesting. It gives me satisfaction to write a lot every day. This is childish but that’s how it is.

— Wittgenstein, Culture and Value

****

One would like to write just so much that the words give life to another, and just so little that one can still take them seriously oneself.

— Elias Canetti, The Human Province

****

Language is an ocean of words. As for me, either I almost drown in it or, when the tide goes out, I look around, walking on what’s left behind. Holes, puddles. Fragmentary writing means these puddles, these marine remnants, these shells, these wet pieces of evidence.

— Georges Perros, Paper Collage

****

I must write for the simple reason that writing is vital for any feeling of well-being. I have no marked desire to see my name in print, and I certainly do not owe anything to anybody. I can go on thinking and writing at a steady pace, and let the resulting material take care of itself.

— Eric Hoffer, Working and Thinking on the Waterfront