Quotes About Writing

Sheila Finch was born and raised in London, England. She did graduate work in medieval literature and linguistics at Indiana University. Dragged to California in 1962 by her (then) husband, she fell in love with the state and has stayed there ever since. She taught fiction writing and the literature of science fiction for thirty years at El Camino College, in Torrance, California. She lives in Long Beach with a cat and a retired racing greyhound.

Isn't it odd, the attractiveness of type and paper and ink, bodying thoughts and descriptions? Isn't it odd how much the sight can teach us about writing? Commas really look like commas in print.

most recent novel is Blackjack, a near-future thriller, written as Lee Singer. She teaches writing online and does manuscript consulting. She has served as a judge in a number of fiction writing contests, including the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction writing competition. She lives in Petaluma

Read. Read 1000 pages for every 1 page that you write.

If I wasn't writing poems, I'd be washing my hands all the time.

I keep writing and rewriting, drawing and redrawing, and rethinking and revising and reediting. It became my grieving ceremony.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I could write "I don't know" one million times and publish that as my memoir. And, yes, it would be repetitive, experimental, and more metaphor than history, but it would also be emotionally accurate.

When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author.

I then vowed to finally finish the years-late sequel to my best-selling book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I needed that money. My mother needed that money. I hadn't been able to finish the book because of the pathological fear that my sequel would be The Phantom Menace instead of The Empire Strikes Back. But, on the airplane, I thought, Okay, okay, Phantom sucked, but it still made big cash. I'm gonna Yoda this book for my mother.

Can a writer forget something that he's written in one of his own books? Yes, of course.

What do you do when Mom leaves you alone like this? (Kat) I write romance novels. (Acheron)

They didn't have novels back then. (Tory) History says they didn't have books, yet what's this thing in my hand? It's square, bound paper that's been written on. Looks like a book to me. (Acheron) Thank you, Captain Sarcasm. How nice of you to join us again. (Tory)

I spend my life essentially alone at a computer. That doesn't change. I have the same challenges every day.

I tend to like order in almost every other aspect of my life, but for me, the process of writing is really chaotic and decadent and indulgent.

There's a lot of effort expended once you begin to completely trash your life. Sometimes, writing feels like this to me.

'I want to touch people but if I touch them in real life they'll slap me.' That's what writing isit's a gross person getting a hug.

I think most writers have to have a practice of writing. For me it is very early in the morning. I try to make it a separate world from the rest of my life.

Everything I know about life I learned from the daily practice of sitting down to write.

Publication in 'The New Yorker' meant everything, and it's no exaggeration to say that it changed my life.

Grammar is the greatest joy in life, don't you find?

Everything I've written up to now, hasn't had anything to do with my life really.

I think at the beginning of one's writing life, negative reviews are what one does to get attention and stake out your territory. It's also often a mistake.

The most terrifying thing in my life is a blank sheet of paper.

What has stayed true in my life as a writer is my dedication to writing - I try to write every day, no matter what - and the joy that writing has given me.