A writer is a person who produces nonfictional writing or literary art such as novels, short stories, poetry, plays, screenplays, or essays—especially someone who writes professionally.
Skilled writers are able to use language to express ideas and images. A writer's work may contribute significantly to the cultural content of a society.
The term writer is customarily used as a synonym of author, although the latter term has a somewhat broader meaning.
Famous quotes containing the word writer:
“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players, and Tennessee Williams has about 5, and Samuel Beckett one—and maybe a clone of that one. I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“The writer is always courted by invitations from the all-too- familiar.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“I review novels to make money, because it is easier for a sluggard to write an article a fortnight than a book a year, because the writer is soothed by the opiate of action, the crank by posing as a good journalist, and having an airhole. I dislike it. I do it and I am always resolving to give it up.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)