Anyone who has experienced a mid-year writing slump knows that a little bit of inspiration can be all it takes to keep going. So here are fifteen of my favourite quotes to help stir the creative soul.

1.) ‘The scariest moment is always just before you start.’ Stephen King

2.) ‘Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.” Rita Mae Brown

3.) ‘Don’t quit—return home to your writing.’ Elizabeth Gilbert

4.) ‘Mistakes are the portals of discovery.’ James Joyce

5.) ‘Asking “Why?” can lead to understanding. Asking “Why not?” can lead to breakthroughs.’ Daniel Pink

6.) ‘Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.’ Cyril Connolly

7.) ‘The world is but a canvas to the imagination.’ Henry David Thoreau

8.) ‘When I am writing, I am doing the thing I was meant to do.’ Anne Sexton

9.) ‘Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.’ John Steinbeck

10.) ‘Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.’ Salvadore Dali

11.) ‘I write to take all the terror and tragedy and comedy and banality of life and wrestle it into something I can understand.’ Kathleen Caron

12.) ‘Creativity is an act of defiance.’ Twyla Tharp

13.) ‘You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.’ Jodi Picoult

14.) ‘It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’ J.K. Rowling

15.) ‘I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.’ Vincent van Gogh