Quotes About Writing

I learned to distrust writers who talked about how they squeezed the blood onto the typewriter. They just don't want you to know how much fun they have - you'll resent it.

When I start to write, I see my stories as a kind of movie. For instance, I ask myself, "What kind of opening do I want for this book?"

I was a book editor for nine years. I'm familiar with the opposite experience, bracing myself for the likelihood that no one would want to publish my book.

Other writers definitely influence my writing. What encourages me and inspires me is when I read a good book. It makes me want to be a better writer.

What everybody is well advised to do is to not write about your own life, this is if you want to write fast. You will be writing about your own life anyway but you won't know it.

I feel very lucky that when I'm burnt out of acting I take to the pen and I write something I want to direct.

When you're writing a book, you don't want it to be overly trendy because you want people to enjoy it for years and refer back to it.

If I live for another ten years I shall probably have written all that I want to write.

I'd always loved movies, but it wasn't some sort of desperate love of celluloid. It was literally like, "I want to write things, and I want people to see them more."

Don't write the book you think publishers want to commission. Plenty of other writers will be doing the same thing.

I remember when I was working on All Alone in the Universe, and Robin Roy was my editor. When I first sent it to her, she said kids this age don't want pictures in their books.

Whatever the style is, I want to have a sense that the writer is thinking, and really trying to get at something, and that there's a sense of discovery as the writing goes along.

I think it's very hard to reconcile oneself to the notion that it may not matter what you think if you still want to write.

On Stranger Than Fiction, the script was so good that I stuck to every line because it was just such brilliant writing from Zach Helm that I felt like I really just want to shoot the page.

If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.

There's a certain point, when you're writing autobiographical stuff, where you don't want to misrepresent yourself. It would be dishonest.

I find writing extremely difficult. I usually have to drag myself to my desk, mainly because I doubt myself. And it's getting harder because I want to improve with every book.

Somebody once said to me if you want to be understood, don't write fiction.

That bad letters of every kind arise from want of the habit of thinking, I cannot doubt.

When I write, I'm writing as a fan, and trying to come up with songs that I would want to listen to.

If I knew anything about what people wanted and was popular, I'd still be writing for 'Saturday Night Live'. I can only write what I want, and hopefully people will like it.

Listen carefully to the feedback your readers give you. Dont write unless people want you to write, a lot of people write just because they want to write.

I don't have any desire to retire in the sense of not doing anything. As long as the Lord gives me strength I want to keep writing and keep preaching.

I'm always writing to a younger version of myself, or a young woman who is like I was. I want that girl to know that I really existed and that it all went down that way.