January: “The First Draft is just you telling yourself the story”– Terry Pratchett

February: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou

March: “Every Secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his work” – Virginia Wolf

April: “It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” – Ernest Hemingway

May: “To gain your own voice you have to forget about having it heard.” – Allen Ginsberg

June: “If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” Dan Poynter

July: “You fail only if you stop writing.” Ray Bradbury

August: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on the broken glass.” Anton Chekhov 

September: ” Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is not an accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time or even the third time. Remember, in the moments of despair, if you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.” William Zinsser

October: “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have to say something.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

November: “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” -William Arthur Ward

December: “Literature should not disappear up its own asshole.” – Kurt Vonnegut

If you have a favorite quote that helps you get through the rough patches, please share them here in the comments section.