Quotes About Writing

A.J. Liebling, one of my heroes, used to say that he could write better than anyone who wrote faster, and faster than anyone who could write better. I'm one nine-hundredth as good as Liebling, but that principle may slightly apply.

I have a slightly crap blog where I opine on anything that occurs to me and run the occasional silly competition.

As a writer, that moment every few years when I buy a new laptop and find out that all the word processing stuff has slightly changed again (stuff I spend every working day using) is like getting into bed at night and finding some mad robot where you expected your wife to be.

I can't help slightly falling in love with every character I write about. And I quite like writing about people who are vilified.

I write non-fiction quicker, and I write it on a computer. Fiction I write longhand, and that helps make it clear that it comes from a slightly different part of the brain, I think.

There are things that I don't like to talk about directly. There are relationships that I am in and have been in that I've written about in a slightly more abstract way, talking about how it affected me but not so much dealing with the other people involved.

I am slightly better at sleeping now during Test matches. I have a diary and I write things down, which helps. I write about decisions, a lot about opposition and stuff I want to say to the team so I am clear on the message I want to give.

Flannery O'Connor's brief life and slim output were nonetheless marked by piercing powers of observation.

Nobody told me how hard it was going to be to get published. I wrote four novels that nobody wanted, sent them out all over, collected hundreds and hundreds of rejection slips.

No, I don't autograph blank slips, checks, or stickers, and certainly no books without me in them.

I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.

Idol has pretty much taken me out of my recording and out of my choreography. I have managed to slip in some choreography jobs. And I've been writing songs for other artists.

I try to write as serious as possible, and then a joke slips in.

By 17, I was submitting to publications and collecting my first rejection slips.

In L.A., we have a saying - 'What do you do?' It's less of a question and more of a self-defense mechanism for wayward screenwriters looking to slip you a first draft, or the occasional actor looking to get in on the latest shoot. But I hate the question because of my own answer - I write about games.

Whenever I write lyrics and an Americanism slips in, I always cut it straight out. I can't use the word 'babe,' for instance. It makes me cringe.

We got instant gratification when we would slip in one of our own songs and people would cheer. We started getting a lot of gratification from writing.

Ideas are elusive, slippery things. Best to keep a pad of paper and a pencil at your bedside, so you can stab them during the night before they get away.

I can't write. I can handle bits of simple-minded advert copy or a poster slogan, so answering questions is about all I'm good for.

Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn't planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I'm not recommending it as a way to write. It's very sloppy, but it works for me.

The chances of a person breaking through their own habits and sloth and limited mind to actually write something that gets out there and matters to people are slim.

The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.

For me, writing is a way of thinking. I write in a journal a lot. I'm a very impatient person, so writing and meditation allow me to slow down and watch my mind; they are containers that keep me in place, hold me still.

I'm pretty slow at writing papers.