Writing Quotes
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Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things that people do
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In writing if it takes over 30 minutes to write the first two paragraphs select another subject.
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I do really well when a challenge is put in front of me. I don't just wake up and write. I like being forced to make decisions on the spot. I think that's why I've done so many things as a freelancer.
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Writing is my refuge. It's where I go. It's where I find that integrity I have.
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I felt that there's an obligation when writing a piece about an urban expressway made in the 50s to acknowledge the context, and Robert Moses is sort of an iconic figure in New York, and he influenced the shape of the city more than anyone else before or after him. He was one of the most powerful and influential civic architects in the world, because of how much he transformed the city. He built multiple bridges and highways and parks and recreational spaces, beaches - in the course of a few decades, he completely changed the city
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What could be more exciting when the writing is going well and things are falling into place? It's just like riding a fabulous wave for a surfer. There's no better place to be.
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If it has horses and swords in it, it's a fantasy, unless it also has a rocketship in it, in which case it becomes science fiction. The only thing that'll turn a story with a rocketship in it back into fantasy is the Holy Grail.
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We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.
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The man who comes to writing late, but is in essence a writer, may sometimes gain as much as he has lost: his experience of life has given him a subject, he is spared the youthful writer's self-torment and soul-searching.
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I use a computer, but before I begin each new book I keep a notebook. I write down everything that comes to mind during that period before I actually begin. It might take months or weeks. That notebook is my security blanket so that I never have to face a blank screen (or blank page). But I print out often and my best ideas usually come with a pencil in my hand.
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I loved writing the Spellman novels, but I never had any plan to only write in one genre.
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Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know".
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I come to writing the same way I come to teaching, which is that my goal is always to create life-long readers.
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By the end of the week, if I'm still alive, I get to write whatever I want about it all.
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Enter the writing process with a childlike sense of wonder and discovery. Let it surprise you.
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Writing is easy. Just sit down and open a vein.
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But what I realized when I was looking back at them was that no matter how different they are, they're still coming from me, and they're still coming from my brain and my set of obsessions. I think that no matter how different I tried to make them, there were just these certain questions that I just kept circling back to as I was writing. I think they were the ones I was really swept up in in that decade.
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How to feel your way toward something honest, hidden under the trapdoor on the top of your skull.
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I'm not that guy who thinks I have all the answers. Writing is a means of communicating, and if enough people say, 'I don't get it,' it's worth looking at.
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The difference between a novelist and someone who tinkers around with writing is this: novelists finish their books.
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For me, songwriting is something that I have to do ritually. I don't just wait for inspiration; I try to write a little bit every day.
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It is evident from their writings that the Founding Fathers would never have tolerated the separation that we have embraced today. They knew that religious principles provided morality and self-control - the lifeblood for the survival of any self-governing community.
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I've been doing some writing, which I find very cathartic and fun.
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Accursed who brings to light of day the writings I have cast away.
