Quotes About Writing

The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.

It's nice to have the creative freedom to write about whatever and no longer feeling those restrictions I had when I was 15.

I'm trying to move a little more toward literary fiction while still retaining a popular feel.

I always thought I'd write when I retired - when I turned 65.

I really tend to write in retrospect.

I love creating that community and writing about that place, because I think, in some ways, Bois Sauvage is like the DeLisle of my past; it's like the DeLisle of the '80s that I can never return to. So in some ways, when I write about Bois Sauvage, I'm writing about a home that I've lost.

Sometimes the writing leads to the revelations, not the other way around.

Shorter work - personal essays and book reviews - allow me to take a break from working on a book, which is good for the book and for its author.

I edit as I write. I revise endlessly. I don't go forward until I know that what I've written is as good as I can make it.

I hate editing. I love to write, but I hate to reread my stuff. To revise.

When I create a character, it happens in layers. The more I write and revise, the better I understand the characters.

I write first drafts by hand, often out of the house somewhere, and then, when I've got a draft, type it up and let it sit, sometimes for a long time, and then when I'm ready, I work on revision.

I like to do books in which a lot of the research and the writing and the thinking revolves around something American.

I write 1,000-1,500 words. The next day, I rewrite it and add 1,000-1,500 words to the end of it.

I've been writing since I was five years old. I used to write poetry, and I loved to rhyme.

I write stories, I don't just write rhymes, I write books.

I've often made revisions at that stage that turned out to be mistakes because I wasn't really in the rhythm of the story anymore. I see a little bit of writing that doesn't seem to be doing as much work as it should be doing, and right at the end, I will sort of rev it up. But when I finally read the story again, it seems a bit obtrusive.

When I write, I write everything from a rhythm point.

I think all writers have a style, a particular voice and rhythm that you have to find.

I always read poetry before I write, to sensitize me to the rhythms and music of language.

I was starting to write and I was like, Okay, I'm going to cast myself in my own thing.' You have so many of those moments as an actor because it's about talent obviously, but it's mostly about being in the right place at the right time.

I can gabble on now, but I couldn't when I was a kid, so I spent a lot of time in my own head on the moors by myself. It felt like writing was the right way to express myself.

I wrote a lot of 'Driving on the Rim' by giving myself the gift of being just as eccentric as I felt like.

Getting up early means I can write for a few hours before anyone starts phoning me or ringing the doorbell.