Quotes About Writing

Too many memoirs focus on childhoods and it's a bit turgid.

As I have begun to write my memoirs, I have begun with my childhood; memories which were hidden, suddenly appear before you, finding expression through my writing.

One of my biggest goals in writing the music for 'Fantastic Beasts' was to create memorable melodies. J.K. Rowling's world has always had a great musical legacy and I was hoping to continue that tradition.

Basically you come up with the fictional idea and you start writing that story, but then in order to write it and to make it seem real, you sometimes put your own memories in. Even if it's a character that's very different from you.

People ask me if I am going to write my memoirs. But even if I wanted to, I would not be able. I have extremely few memories.

It took me 14 years to write 'Crazy Brave' because I kept changing the form and I also kept running away from the story. I said I don't really want to write about myself. But it's about writing about memory.

I think all writing is done through memory.

I don't think anybody would be interested in my memoir - and my memory isn't very good either!

I always try to write from memory, and I always try to use memory as an editor. So when I'm thinking of something like a relationship or whatever, then I'm letting my memory tell me what the important things were.

I'd dearly love to write a political book that changed the hearts and minds of men and women.

Gestating characters feels something like the mental equivalent of gestating a baby. In both cases, to create them you lose yourself. Or at least you reshape yourself to encompass them.

It is difficult to write about any form of mental disease, especially your own, without sounding as if you were examining a bug under glass.

Reading Stephen King's book, On Writing, was like being cornered and forced to have a long, drawn out mental enema.

I didn't need to write historical epics, no, or science fiction, though I read a lot of science fiction as a kid and rather liked it. But I didn't have the mentality.

Being the everyman in the writing room helps a lot: you have to be a real collaborator and selfless, and not have ego when you walk in there. That's the antithesis of the artist mentality.

Music actually inspires me a lot. I listen to a lot of music, and often I find that if I can associate mentally a song or a piece of music with a particular character or scene, it helps me get back into the head of that character.

I should mention something that nobody ever thinks about, but proofreading takes a lot of time. After you write something, there are these proofs that keep coming, and there's this panicky feeling that 'This is me and I must make it better.'

I've had great writing teachers and mentors and great success with my first book.

Writing by committee becomes much less about a vision. It is really about a piece of merchandise.

I'm at the mercy of whatever character comes into my head.

I don't think I'll ever stop writing. I write almost every day. I'd write plays even if they were never done again. You're at the mercy of whatever talent you have.

There's no literary merit in my books.

I first fell in love with music when I was five years old because of 'Annie.' And then 'The Little Mermaid' really made me want to start singing. And then the fierce, amazing women of the '90s - Alanis Morrissette, Courtney Love, Tori Amos, Ani Difranco, Paula Cole, Patty Griffin - made me want to start writing.

I'm writing all the time, really. It's become a little bit of a problem when I go home. Sometimes I should really go out and hang out with my friends, but what happens is I get really inspired and then just go and mess around on the computer.