133 quotes found
“To write is to stand at the edge of a bottomless well, unafraid of falling in.”
“But when I say it isn't meant for anyone's eyes, I don't mean it in the sense of one of those novel manuscripts people keep in a drawer, insisting they don't care if anyone else ever reads it or no...”
“So here I am writing my zombie story and my lead character decides to betray me.”
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
“Writers arent people exactly. Or, if theyre any good, theyre a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.”
“That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.”
“No one ever does the last thing on their list.”
“In order to write about life first you must live it.”
“We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things - I write, I act - and I never know what I'm going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if...”
“But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll...”
“If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered.”
“Everything is research.”
“Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
“To work, her dumb lunge says,is to move a certain mass...through a certain distance,is to pull your weight and feelexact and equal to it.Feel dragged upon. And buoyant.”
“The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature. It is a mistake to think that literature can be produced from the raw. On...”
“Whenever I have endured or accomplished some difficult task -- such as watching television, going out socially or sleeping -- I always look forward to rewarding myself with the small pleasure of ge...”
“Writing is like having sex. The people who never shut up about doing it are usually the ones who don't know what the hell they're doing.”
“When you can't enter through the front door, kick in a window.”
“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”
“Writers are a superior breed. No one else can face so much rejection and still thrive.”
