Writing... is 90 percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you...You don't only listen to the person speaking to you across...
I mean, what you say about how you write your books? What I mean is, first you've got to think of something, and then when you've thought of it you've got to force yourself to sit down and write it....
Get to work. Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair.
When strangers on a train or a plane ask what I do for a living, I say, "I kill people." This response makes for a short conversation. No eye contact and no sudden movement from my seat-mate. Only pea...
Word count doesn't tell me when a story ends, my characters will tell me.
Writing is my joy, is my comfort zone, it strengthens my feeble knees and it frees my troubled heart.
One of the greatest gifts we can give someone is our undivided attention--a thought that whispers constantly in the ear of any author who respects their readers.
Write and keep writing, not because people will like it, but because someone may get a kick out of thrashing your book.
I write what I want to read. If I were to write what I know, I'd be staring at a blank page forever.
The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet.
I've tried to explain to people that I don't 'love' writing any more than I 'love' breathing. It's something I do and it's something I need. If I thought about it as a love/hate thing, I probably woul...
Research" is a wonderful word for writers. It serves as excuse for EVERYTHING
Half hating, half loving, this free time between writing books.
Contemplation and writing demand solitude, which leads to a sorry feeling of isolation and detachment. Writers try to call their loneliness genius, and the world believes them most of the time.
I have no talent; it's just a question of working, of being willing to put in the time.
Art is too often discounted as a secondary priority. The writer is necessary to society.
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.
To all you writers, artists, musicians, creative types who want to give up: It's okay to walk away for a bit. Get your second wind. But your writing, art, music will be there, lurking over your should...
You are a writer when your overwhelming need to tell a story outweighs your fear of ridicule.
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...