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Oscar Wilde Quotes about Writing

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If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.

If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.

Inspirational, Writing, Thinking

A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.

Book, Reading, Writing

Good intentions are invariably ungrammatical.

Writing, Good Intentions, Intention

Oscar Wilde (2014). “Miscellaneous Aphorisms: The Soul of Man”, p.41, Simon and Schuster

I don’t write this letter to put bitterness into your heart, but to pluck it out of mine. For my own sake I must forgive you.

Writing, Heart, Forgiving

Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.94, Oxford University Press on Demand

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

Writing, Media, Differences

The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.

Book, Writing, Artist

Oscar Wilde (2015). “Oscar Wilde The Dover Reader”, p.48, Courier Dover Publications

Who am I to tamper with a masterpiece?

Work, Writing, Masterpiece

Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.123, Courier Corporation

I wrote when I did not know life; now that I do know the meaning of life, I have no more to write. Life cannot be written; life can only be lived.

Writing, Meaning Of Life, Knows

Oscar Wilde (2012). “Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations”, p.4, Courier Corporation

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

Funny, Sarcastic, Writing

"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

Book, Reading, Writing

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Funny, Witty, Writing

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1001, Wordsworth Editions

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Book, Reading, Writing

Oscar Wilde (1950). “Essays”, Ayer Company Pub

Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed.

Writing, Men, Faces

Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.214, Harvard University Press

Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

Love, Mistake, Writing

The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 4 (1891). A similar quotation occurs inWilde's play LadyWindermere's Fan, act 3 (1892).

I have put my talent into writing, my genius I have saved for living.

Writing, Genius, Talent

Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?

Sweet, Real, Writing

Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.22, Oxford University Press on Demand

In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.

Book, Reading, Writing

Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (2008). “Oscar Wilde - The Major Works”, p.570, Oxford University Press

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.

Writing, Men, Biographies

"The Butterfly's Boswell" (1887)

They are always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else, or a painter why he does not paint like somebody else, quite oblivious of the fact that if either of them did anything of the kind he would cease to be an artist.

Writing, Artist, Doe

Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.1054, Wordsworth Editions

She lives the poetry she cannot write.

Writing

He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize

Life, Writing, Poetry

Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.64, Diversion Books

I write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write. If my work pleases the few I am gratified. As for the mob, I have no desire to be a popular novelist. It is far too easy.

Writing, Giving, Desire

Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.82, Courier Corporation

When I think of all the harm [the Bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.

Writing, Thinking, Despair

Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.112, Wordsworth Editions

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

Morning, Writing, Perfection

Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.225, Wordsworth Editions

Biography lends to death a new terror.

Funny, Writing, Humor

Oscar Wilde (1947). “The Happy Prince”, p.16, New Line Publishing

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