It’s time: National Novel Writing Month is finally here! And whether you’ve already started writing (and did Preptober like a responsible person) or you’re more like me and about a week late to the game, you could probably use some inspiration to get you going.

And we all love quotes about writing from the great writers of the past (or present). So, here are my favorites:

If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.

Toni Morrison

Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

Franz Kafka

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

Isaac Asimov

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Elmore Leonard

Know your literary tradition, savor it, steal from it, but when you sit down to write, forget about worshiping greatness and fetishizing masterpieces

Allegra Goodman

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Anton Chekhov

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice

Octavia Butler

The mind has plenty of ways of preventing you from writing, and paralysing self-consciousness is a good one. The only thing to do is ignore it, and remember what Vincent van Gogh said in one of his letters about the painter’s fear of the blank canvas—the canvas, he said, is far more afraid of the painter.

Phillip Pullman

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.

Barbara Kingsolver

And finally, just to make you feel better if it’s still not going well…

Every writer I know has trouble writing.

Joseph Heller