The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
In fact, one could argue that the skill of the fiction writer boils down to the ability to exploit intensity.
Writing is my oxygen. Music is my carbon dioxide.
I owe all my originality, such as it is, to my determination not to be a literary man. Instead of belonging to a literary club I belong to a municipal council. Instead of drinking and discussing autho...
I just write whenever I can.
...and above all, you should not think of writing as a way of earning your living. If you do, your work will smell of your poverty. It will be colored by your weakness and be as thin as your hunger. T...
Give the reader what they want, just not the way they expect it.
Good or bad, words have an impact on each of us. As a writer, I can only hope that the effects my words have on others are more often good than bad.
You need three things to become a successful novelist: talent, luck and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to fo...
You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.")
Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.
You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.
Dig deep and go where the pain and fear and joy are, and put it out there. The minute you shy away from pure honesty in your writing, you become a liar.
A successful story always offers its audience more than a simple resolution of events. A story offers a dramatic affirmation of human needs that are acted out to resolution and fulfillment. Even when...
There's no right way of writing. There's only your way.
A dear and long-time friend,... asked me, "Jack, how long does it usually take you to write a book?" I replied, "Of course it depends on the project and its requirements, each book has its own rules....
Each letter has a shape, she told them, one shape in the world and no other, and it is your responsibility to make it perfect.
During 30 years of earning my daily bread as a writer I have learned many lessons about our craft. The most significant of those lessons is that I still have many lessons to learn about out craft.
Some writers are the kind of solo violinists who need complete silence to tune their instruments. Others want to hear every member of the orchestra—they’ll take a cue from a clarinet, from an oboe, ev...
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 an...