1,322 quotes found
“Who knows why we do it? And when we've done it, nobody wants it. Still we keep doing it. That's what makes a writer a writer.”
“The most important trait of a writer is an authentic voice. Writers have to have faith in their own voice, and their own way of doing things. Originality is the gem that every writer possesses. Ori...”
“Still writing?" I usually nod and smile, then quickly change the subject. But here is what I would like to put down my fork and say: Yes, yes, I am. I will write until the day I die, or until I am ...”
“Don't give in to doubt. Never be discouraged if your first draft isn't what you thought it would be. Given skill and a story that compels you, muster your determination and make what's on the page ...”
“Writing is not a hobby. Collecting stamps or coins is a hobby. Writing is a calling.”
“So they spread the paintings on the lawn, and the boy explained each of them. "This is the school, and this is the playground, and these are my friends." He stared at the paintings for a long time ...”
“Writing is the act of discovery.”
“Let your characters lead when you're dancing together.”
“Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, or making friends. It's about doing what you love the best you know how. It's about making a heart pound in fear, shrink from rage, weep with under...”
“When I started to learn how to read, I discovered the same kind of power. I could create an environment that I didn't have, and I could order this environment in the way that I couldn't in my actua...”
“What happened was that sometimes I was, from a young age, put in the theater to watch movies because they kept me quiet and they kept me entertained, and they got me out from under the feet of my p...”
“A key to a long, productive writing life is finding ways to support that life, emotionally and existentially.”
“No matter how many books I write, I will eventually get to fiction. That is where I'm going.”
“I have wrought my simple planIf I give one hour of joyTo the boy whos half a man,Or the man whos half a boy.”
“All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully...”
“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt.”
“A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be under...”
“If you can't stand your own company alone in a room for long hours, or, when it gets tough, the feeling of being in a locked cell, or, when it gets tougher still, the vague feeling of being buried ...”
“ I also know that not everyone will like what I do, and that there are many people who do love my work, and so I write for them, and for my own pleasure, and try not to brood too much over those wh...”
“Writing is a 24/7 job. You live it, eat it, breathe it... the pay can be pretty lousy, but you do it happily, because you love it!!! That, and from the day you started writing the voices in your he...”
