Quotes About Writing

Writing Charles Dickens' biography is like writing five biographies.

I think when people hear about a celebrity writing a book of any kind, the assumption is that it was dictated to a ghostwriter.

One of the achievements of which I am most proud was the codification, the writing into U.S. law, of the U.S. embargo on the Castro dictatorship.

Me and my comedy writer friends talk a lot about how we love 'Die Hard,' but we'll never be able to write 'Die Hard.'

If I can't write it would be as if I died.

I don't mind people writing about me. Personal attacks are different, but political arguments? I'm putting myself out there on a daily basis. I'm giving my opinion. So it only makes sense that others might differ and will criticize me.

I don't actually sit down and write, but I just have a lot of different ideas about films and making movies.

I've always liked being on the performance end of it. I've come up with different ideas, but as far as being a creative writer, I'm not sure about that. I've always liked the performance end of it and wrestling, getting in the ring in front of a live crowd.

What one's goal should be is just to become a better writer and to tell different kinds of stories.

I love all Daphne du Maurier's stuff. And just enjoying period dramas, really... wanting to do something drastically different from 'Nighty Night', the chance to write very different language.

'Dear Mr. Henshaw' came about because two different boys from different parts of the country asked me to write a book about a boy whose parents were divorced, and so I wrote 'Dear Mr. Henshaw,' and it won the Newbery, and I was - it's been very popular.

In general, my own experience of writing an adaptation of 'Evening' gave me a chance to get into different parts of the book.

I don't write a whole lot about one person that exists in reality; it's usually characteristics of different people that I combine into a character. I tend to think through and try and make characters behave in a natural way. I follow the character and think about what they would do, what decisions they would make.

I may have a little bit of a talent for music, but I've learnt to tap into my own self when I write. When I put the drill bit inside my heart, sometimes I come up with something light and frothy, sometimes with something deep and painful, but it's great to connect with the audience.

That's what makes writer's block so painful. You think the well has run dry, maybe somewhere in the heavens the tap has been turned off. That's beyond frightening.

I'm kind of lucky in the fact that I can take something that's in my head and write it down, or I can listen to a piece of music that somebody else has written and try to tap into what the music's saying and just kind of follow that, you know. I mean, nine times out of 10, I'm just kind of following where the music takes me.

Writing for 'Rooster' was a strange experience. It's funny, once you tap into a voice, words just start to flow. You know when you've hit a spirit or captured something.

Everyone is taught the essentials of writing for at least 13 years, maybe more if they go to college. Nobody is taught music or tap dancing that way.

I rely heavily on rhythm when I write. You should tap your foot when you read it, all the way through.

Honestly, I feel pretty awed anytime I meet just about any writer. I get how hard it is to write and make a living from it, but there's also this almost magical force you need to tap into, and I'm amazed by anyone who can do it.

At the beginning of writing fiction, too much of the newspaper style was getting into the prose, so I thought, 'Gee, I should try writing longhand. Maybe I can tap something that goes back to the point before I could type.'

It is so impossible to predict how much influence what you write will have, and what sorts of anxieties and imaginaries it will tap into.

In my screenplays - from the very beginning I've always used tape. I talk my screenplays. And then have somebody transcribe them.

I would imagine that most of my writing is done spontaneously. I had no intention of writing, and then I'll just walk through the house, and I'll hear this melody, and I'll turn on the tape players and go back to it later on. Some days I'll get 3-5 songs a day.