Most of those who know me know that I’m something of a Shakespeare nut. That nuttiness led me to write my award-winning book, The Bard and the Bible: A Shakespeare Devotional, which pairs quotes from his works with verses from the King James Version of the Bible, as the KJV and Shakespeare’s works were produced in the same period, nation, and city, by men who knew each other. To many, Shakespeare is the epitome of a gifted and productive writer. So, what did he write about writers and writing? I’m so glad you asked. Here are some of my favorite Shakespeare quotes on the subject:
To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.
Much Ado About Nothing
Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
Richard II
He writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely.
As You Like It
Why should I write this down, that’s riveted,
Screw’d to my memory?
Cymbeline
Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up
that I can write my name.
Henry VI Pt. 2
Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water.
Henry VIII
Devise, wit;
write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Never durst poet touch a pen to write
Until his ink were temper’d with love’s sighs;
Love’s Labour’s Lost
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say “This poet lies:
Such heavenly touches ne’er touch’d earthly faces.”
Sonnet 17
O’ let me, true in love, but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair
As any mother’s child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fix’d in heaven’s air:
Sonnet 21
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
Sonnet 76
I think good thoughts whilst others write good words.
Sonnet 85
Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells, so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all.
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears
Moist it again, and frame some feeling line
That may discover such integrity.
Two Gentlemen of Verona
There you have it. These are only fourteen excerpts among many, from a man who wrote on deadline, in quarantine, and in multiple genres, producing 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several dozen plays—that we know of.
