# Quote — Stephen King, On Writing

> Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story. Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It's not just a question of how-to, you see; it's also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing.

- Author: [Stephen King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king.md)
- Book: [On Writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/on-writing.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_Writing#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/on-writing/description-is-what

## More from this book

> We're not even in the same year together, let alone the same room....except we are together. We're close.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/on-writing/were-not-even.md)

> My mother knew I wanted to be a writer (with all those rejection slips hanging from the spike on my bedroom wall, how could she not?), but she encouraged me to get a teacher’s credential “so you’ll have something to fall back on.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/on-writing/my-mother-knew.md)

> ...reading in bed can be heaven, assuming you can get just the right amount of light on the page and aren't prone to spilling your coffee or cognac on the sheets.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/on-writing/reading-in-bed.md)