Writing Quotes

I wanted to write a song about sexism, but I didn't want to do it in a mechanical way and be like, "Don't be sexist!" because that's not how I talk in regular life.

I always write the first and last song of an album first, and then the middle just kind of happens.

When I write my books, actually I'm known for very logical rule-based magic systems. I write with one foot in fantasy and one foot in science fiction.

Write a true, careless, slovenly impulsive, honest diary every day of your life.

Even if I knew for certain that I would never have anything published again, and would never make another cent from it, I would still keep on writing.

Life is like a typographical error: we're constantly writing and rewriting things over each other.

I suspect that every writer is secretly writing for someone.

A writer should say to himself, not, How can I get more money?, but How can I reach more readers (without lowering standards)?

It's very nice to be able to write something you don't have to get four other people to agree with before it can become authoritative.

Being so honest in my writing is cathartic.

In writing I found something I could do at least as well as my peers, if not better.

I can write songs, I've had songs in movies, but I can't compose film scores, you know?

Writing so that I can act became a way of having not more control over my future but not having to wait for permission. You can choose yourself. Hmm, who should play this part? I nominate me!

I don't really have time to sit down and write. But when I think of a melody, I call up my answering machine and sing it, so I won't forget it.

I have a particular style of writing and my voice sounds a particular way, which lends itself to a certain style.

I write box notes for Kino International, which specializes in distributing foreign films.

I was always concerned with writing to my age at a particular moment. That was the way I would keep faith with the audience that supported me as I went along.

I like to get paid for doing basic research, so it's pleasant to write some nonfiction about it.

I wouldn't describe that "position" as "parasitic." I'd describe that experience as "edifying." I don't merely write from a critical intellectual distance. I actually live around here.

Eddie Izzard is absolutely brilliant. I would love to write something for him.

I write screenplays that don't get made and pilots that don't get picked up, and I re-write other people's movies, and those are all different kinds of fees.

Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.

I really wish I knew what I was doing because I'd be writing hit songs every minute.

It was such a paradox for me that the only thing I know how to do is act, but that the first thing I abandoned while writing were the characters

Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else.

The only moral that is of any value is that which arises inevitably from the whole cast of the author's mind.

Aren't all these notes the senseless writings of a man who won't accept the fact that there is nothing we can do with suffering except to suffer it?

You're walking by the tomb of Battiades, Who knew well how to write poetry, and enjoy Laughter at the right moment, over the wine.

Take it from your own life, write what you believe in.

We do not truly own our thoughts or experiences until we have negotiated them with ourselvesand for this writing is the prime medium.

Writing a long essay is probably the most complex constructive act that most human beings areever expected to perform.

Yes, it's hard to write. But it's harder not to.

Writing in a nuanced way, getting at all the details in a way that remains interesting for the reader, is very difficult.

Everybody's idea of a great book is different, of course. For me it's one that makes my jaw drop on every page, the writing is so original.

A book of mine is always a matter of fate. There is something unpredictable about the process of writing, and I cannot prescribe for myself any predetermined course.

My life isn't interesting! It's my mom. You need to write her life and put me in it. I'm a cameo in her life.

When I found out I could write I was shocked! I didn't know I could write.

I write books that way - I put a first line down and say, "Where does this go?"

Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.

I write short, my words tight to the thread of the narrative.

I am always pleased to be asked to write a poem.

I'll be left writing picture books and fairy tales

If you write a story based on a real person, you're trapped by the details of the real person and his life. It gets in the way of writing your own story.

I love writing and do not know why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession.

Now I say I'm a diarist with an explanation I'll get back to you on. Someday I may try and write in memoir form.

I write music to please myself. Hopefully the director's enjoying it too.

I've been doing some writing, which I find very cathartic and fun.

Those who say they would write a book if only they had time will never become authors.

I'm lucky; people write scripts for me.

So, once I get writing I really try and put five to eight hours a day in my room with a guitar to really try and come up with stuff that feels interesting enough to me to keep it.