Motivation from Masters: F.Scott Fitzgerald

If I can’t inspire you, maybe some successful writers can. Today’s Motivation from Masters post features F. Scott Fitzgerald.

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you’ve got something to say.

Why do writers start writing? I don’t know how you would answer that question, but to me, this quote sums things up perfectly. I have so much to say, and writing is my way to say it.

Because I write for a living, not everything I write will change the world – but I’d like to think that my personal projects really do “say something.”

Some other Fitzgerald quotes I love:

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”

“Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.”

“An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.”

“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.”

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.”

Photo by Carl van Vechten via Wikicommons.