Quotes About Writing

I had this really great amazing thing happen where I almost finished the book and I really needed to come up with an ending and I decided to go back and re-read the book and see if I could come up with an ending.

If I wasn't plagued by needing to write things, that would perhaps be a blessing.

Every year I tell myself that I'm not going to read any reviews and then I do. We're all human and when I read something negative it hurts. I think when you write it's part of the game, you're going to get some good reviews and some bad reviews and that's how it goes. I don't write for the reviews.

I have a confession to make. For years, I earned a living - or a sort of living - writing negative book reviews.

After my debut didn't go very well with Holt, I needed to be in a healthier head space. I was happy to emerge from there. You will always have those negative thoughts as a writer, but you can't let them take over. If you let them take over, those are the real page killers.

I'm hypersensitive to negativity and duplicity, and I want to push it away by writing comedy. Maybe that hypersensitivity comes across and allows me to play dastardly, multi-layered people.

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

When I was a young mother at home with a two year old and a five year old, living on the Eastside in one of those neighborhoods where all the houses look the same, where all the cars look the same and the lawns look the same, I was writing in secret.

In general, writers who talk to their colleagues and neighbors constantly about their own writing seem to me pretty insufferable. I try not to be that guy.

A friend of mine from college is married to Neil Levy, who started on 'Saturday Night Live' in the early days and is a really great guy and funny writer.

Neither of my parents has been very sensitive about my writing.

I am a very nerdy reader in that I am as disciplined about my reading as I am about my writing.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.

Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.

Because I'm a writer, I'm really good at being nervous.

During every book, I have a nervous breakdown. Usually it's about two thirds of the way through the book - I'm just comatose on the couch for at least a week, and I eventually break through it and have an answer about how to fix the thing.

When you write fiction, you're like a bird making a nest. You remember every little story ever told you. It's funny how things come back to you.

I use the Net for a lot of things besides e-mailing. I involve myself in chats with people as part of my research for characters.

Most of the best writing, the most creative writing, the most interesting, the most out-of-the-box kind of stuff, is being done on cable, you know, and on the computer. I mean, whatever it is, Amazon or Netflix or something. Because they're just willing to take chances, you know, and there's a market for it.

If you haven't taken a writing class, take a writing class. I took every class that was available in my area. I went to conferences inside and outside my area to network with people. That's how I got my agent. I found my agent through another agent who was at a conference.

I've always felt I had the talent. I've done a lot in my life. I've written, been in bands, done live TV for a network in Perth. I'm well-trained when it comes to being on a set, which gives you freedom.

I don't really go out and do too much like networking and Hollywood events kind of thing. But I do some writing, and I find it helps me as an actor in terms of giving yourself back the power and feeling a bit of strength in that respect.

When I'm writing, I don't feel neurotic. So it's better for the family if I'm working.

Writing is one thing, but I'm way more insecure and neurotic when it comes to acting.