Quotes About Writing

I think of myself as a very ordinary person. I like writing about the juxtaposition between people: the beauty of them at times and then the banal, everyday context in which we find ourselves.

A lot of banging in the head has built up over the decades, and for my own sanity, I needed to write. I wanted to see if I could tell an honest, organic story about characters that interest me.

The way I write my shows, every character is its own organic thing. No character has a life at all until I see it played by somebody.

Whatever I'm writing comes organically out of my life.

In the end, being the writer on set is a bit like having organised a big party, but you're not allowed to eat or drink anything. You just have to stand in the corner.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to think that what you need to write a novel is imagination, creativity and a facility with words. Yes, you need all those things, but a novel is a highly complex organism that needs to be dealt with in quite a logical manner.

The great thing about being a novelist is that you organize your own day.

I first considered writing 'New York' in 1991. I'd been in the city for a decade, was married to an American wife, and sending my children to New York schools. I was even on the board of a coop building. But I wasn't sure how to organize such complex material, and for many years I put the project aside.

When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be when writing a novel. Writing poetry is a state of free float.

I have ideas written down some places, but usually I can't find them. I'm not very organized.

I save everything. I have these carefully organized file boxes. Somewhere in there is a section of the 'New York Times' where I wrote 'The Border Guard' in the margin.

When I'm working on historical books, I'm much more organized. I usually read about 100 books to get the depth of knowledge I need.

I think there are people out there writing original bluegrass songs, but it's hard to get them out on the air.

Most of my cliches aren't original.

I'll think of the idea and then I'll write something down, then within that there will be a joke or two which is the original thing which I thought was funny.

The few times I've tried to write original screenplays, it's a difficult process because I just don't feel like I know the characters the way I know them after the year or two it takes to write a novel.

My advice to authors would be to try to do something original rather than to try to anticipate what the market is looking for.

Knowing what you're up against is part of the strength of writing something that is even, I guess, considered halfway original, knowing what's out there to begin with.

Writing is much more satisfying on a certain level than acting ever was. Because you're not interpreting someone else's original idea, you can come up with your own.

I thought I was clever enough to write as well as these people and I didn't realize that there is something called originality and your own voice.

I came to Hollywood originally writing comedy and writing satire.

I didn't originally intend on writing a book. I started writing during the day to feel like I was accomplishing something creative.

Originally, 'The Windup Girl' started as a short story - a very gnarly, complicated short story set in Bangkok that didn't work very well.

I had originally been looking at writing, including fiction.