Writing can be a lonely, solitary activity, pitted with self-doubt at times. Thankfully, many greats before us have experienced the very same thing, and their words of encouragement and inspiration can smooth even the roughest patches a writer has fallen into. Here are 10 great quotes to remember from some of the most talented authors who have ever lived:

1. “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.” –Kurt Vonnegut

2. “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” –Ernest Hemingway

3. “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” –Mark Twain

4. “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” –Sylvia Plath

5. “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” –Ray Bradbury

6. “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” –Stephen King

7. “Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.” –Neil Gaiman

8. “I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of. ” –Joss Whedon

9. “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

And Finally, the best quote to recall when self-doubt has hit you full on….

10. “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” –Ira Glass