Writer Quotes

In my eighties, my best friends are in their fifties, and I have many friends at university. It keeps one young, and up with the vocabulary. That's terribly important, especially for a writer.

It is the test of a novel writer's art that he conceal his snake-in-the-grass; but the reader may be sure that it is always there.

I now can be sure that, once I start writing a book, I'll be able to finish it. I've also become more assured about my 'voice' as a writer and being able to keep the characters true to themselves.

Your first duty as a writer is to write to please yourself. And you have no duty towards anyone else.

To be misunderstood can be the writer's punishment for having disturbed the reader's peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding.

I feel like 'Next To Me' is a great introduction because it's a simple song that has a simple message for me. I wanted to introduce something that lyrically I'm proud of and introduces me both as an artist and as a writer.

Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.

You should never rely on interviews with musicians as being factual. Most of them are mangled and even have made up stuff in them, that is to say, made up stuff by the writer or editor.

Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan; you just hope for it.

The hard part of writing at all is sitting your ass down in a chair and writing it. There's always something better to do, like I've got an interview, sharpening the pencils, trimming the roses. There's always something better to do. Going to a writer's club?

I'm the luckiest writer on earth.

If you are killed because you are a writer, that's the maximum expression of respect, you know.

I'm not a disciplined writer.

I had achieved the most important things in my life when I married Joan and had the sons. Given the choice between Joan and the boys, and being a writer, I world give up being a writer without a blink.

I think that like all writers - and if any writer disagrees with this, then he is not a writer - I write primarily for myself.

In times when religious or political faith or hope predominates, the writer functions totally in unison with society, and expresses society's feelings, beliefs, and hopes in perfect harmony.

It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.

But as a writer and performer, I want to get paid for what I do.

The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yogurt.

A book is one kind of an art form and a film is a different art form. I think as a writer you just have to say, well the book is one thing, and the film is a completely different one.

I don't lead a writer's life. And I think that can be a source of suspicion and irritation to some people.

The hard necessity of bringing the judge on the bench down into the dock has been the peculiar responsibility of the writer in all ages of man.

I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block.

If technique is of no interest to a writer, I doubt that the writer is an artist.

Comedy can be, especially in a writer's room, really aggressive, kind of a very male-dominated room, and it would be hard for women. It's not a nurturing place. It's not like a lot of women are going to say, I can't wait to live that lifestyle and be in a writer's room until 2 or 3 a.m.

When a writer becomes a reader of his or her own work, a lot can go wrong. It's like do-it-yourself dentistry.

If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code.

There's a feminist writer, Naomi Wolfe, who is reconsidering her position on abortion.

For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.

When writing isn't going well-then the bad thing about being a writer is that I also have the freedom and flexibility to do something badly, and no one else can fix it for me.