Quotes About Writing

Every writer loves the idea of being able to go in and fix a problem and then leave without obligation. It's fun!

I used to feel an obligation to invent things. I felt I was a failure because I didn't do massive great novels about Australia or the outback or something. I just don't feel that any more.

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

As authors, we're all trying to fight against obscurity and outside distractions, but it's a tough battle.

Your worst enemy as a writer - especially one working online a lot of the time - is obscurity.

Imagination is really dependent on memory and observation, these things that we think of as part of nonfiction writing, actually.

A lot of my writing and my detailing of scenes are based on my observations of life in Nagpur.

Writers are the ones who figure out how to put their observations into words.

Anil Sethi told me to get into journalism. The thought got into my head, that I could see things, write about them. I used to, anyhow, roam around, observe and describe things I saw.

Being on 'Nashville' and working with some incredible people like T-Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller - so many wonderful, incredible musicians that I've been blessed to play with and observe - that has continued to shape the process of arranging music, writing music.

Just like all my novels, 'Illusion' is a good way to observe where Frank Peretti was in his life when he wrote it.

I don't know if I am a good, average, or bad writer, but I write fast. Everything I observe, my experiences and imagination come together while writing.

Usually I'll be with my friends and I'll observe everything, and grab emotions from that to write my songs.

I often work and write in coffee shops, observing the baristas and eavesdropping on interesting conversations.

When I became obsessed with Winston Churchill, I wrote a book about Churchill. What a joy it was to write that book!

It is probably true that I would not have had as many children or mothers in my books without being a mother with children. It is definitely true that I would not have written about the Civil War without having a little guy who was obsessed with it.

I'm not a writer. I know a lot of writers; I know a handful of really excellent, great ones, and I know what they're like. They are in love with language. They're obsessed with it. Even if their thoughts aren't more special than anybody else's, they have a way of putting them into words that makes them sensational.

I've always felt so fortunate to have writing to turn to every day. I'm obsessed with it.

The novelist's obsession, moment by moment, is with language: finding the right next word.

You cannot write a book unless it is totally inhabiting your imagination and you are totally engrossed with it. Which is a kind word for obsession.

I do write about obsession, but I don't think I have an obsession for writing. I'm not a compulsive writer. I like to watch obsession in other people, watch the way it makes them behave.

If you don't have obsessions, don't write. my characters are obsessed.

I'm gradually working through my obsessions, and maybe, when they're all free and clear, I'll write a comedy. But I'm not there yet.

I'm always writing. I'm an obsessive. It's not because I'm a disciplined person. It's because I'm crazy about it.