Why Write?

Though I haven't before devoted an entire entry to the "why write?" question, I've mentioned my own personal reasons here and there throughout the blog. So, instead of repeating myself, I thought I'd let the professionals give their own answers:

Why Write??

"If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad." ~Lord Byron

"How do I know what I think, until I see what I say." ~W.H. Auden

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." ~Gloria Steinem

"Why do writers write? Because it isn't there." ~Thomas Berger

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." ~Rudyard Kipling

"There are three reasons for becoming a writer. The first is that you need the money; the second, that you have something to say that you think the world should know; and the third is that you can't think what to do with the long winter evenings. ~Quentin Crisp

"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say." ~Sharon O'Brien

"When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do." ~Anne Sexton