Quotes About Writing

Till the time I found a creative outlet, I was trying to be extra creative at business, which would always put me in a situation of conflict with other stakeholders. The moment I started writing, my creative impulses were finally channelised.

I start writing at 7.30 A.M. and write till noon. I've never written a single word after 5.00 P.M.

I stand before you as a writer without any ground of being out of which to write: really blown about from country to country, culture to culture till I feel - till I am - nothing. As it happens, I like it that way.

I could make up characters till the cows came home. Plot's what hard. Very hard.

My father believed in astrology. His astrologer had predicted that his daughter would become a writer someday. My father would nag me, but I didn't write a word till he passed away. I wish he could see me now.

I never approach an actor till I have finished the script.

You won't find a publisher until you have written the book and you won't find the time till you sit down, stay down, and write it. No one else is going to do it and that is a fact.

I guess it's ridiculously romantic, but I wanted to be a full tilt, sink-or-swim writer.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Back in the day, when I started, you were still allowed to make mistakes. You got to make your mistakes in public, in a way. I think the world was a more forgiving place when I started my career, in the sense that we got time and space to develop as a writer.

I have all the time and space in the world when I write a book.

The funny thing is that I used to be a blogger, but it wasn't known as 'blogging' at that time. This was in the '99/2000 time frame.

A 90-minute time frame is not long enough to tell a good female story, and that's why long-format television has become so great for female storytelling and for female performers and directors and writers.

Being a writer in Iceland, you get rewarded all the time: People really do read our books, and they have opinions; they love them, or they hate them. At the average Christmas party, people push politics and the Kardashians aside and discuss literature.

While in the middle of writing a book, I have a hard time reading other books for pleasure.

Real novelists, those we admire, those we consider timeless in their language and character and scene, those who receive accolades for inventive language and form, have writing lives we imagine in specific ways.

I definitely don't aspire to writing that's 'timeless,' whatever that means.

When I set out to write 'I'm Judging You,' I wanted to create something that was both timely and timeless. But I didn't know how timely this book would be until we, the people of the United States, elected a walking Cheeto to the highest office in the land on November 8, 2016.

When a newspaper columnist wants to write about a novel, the rule is that you're supposed to have a 'hook,' an excuse, a timely reason to bring up the book in question.

I have a hard time writing, and I usually have to put a timer at my desk and put it on for an hour. But I love to illustrate, and I can hardly stop myself.

I rewrote the ending to 'Farewell to Arms,' the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.

At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.

You do not give a great biographer a timetable. You let them do their work and, in due course, publish it.

I'm always shy and timid when I write in front of people.