“A novelist has to know enough about a subject to fool the passenger next to him on an airplane.”
“In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you re a great writer, you must say that you are.”
“The privilege is not writing a novel, it s to have someone read it. When you look at it that way, you realize the responsibility you have to put your very best on the page.”
“Use all this life to make yourself a great writer, thoughtful and kind, slowly, surely over the years.”
“Some days being a writer consists of telling yourself you aren t insane, your characters are.”
“To ask how I feel about writing is to ask how I feel about breathing.”
“Weekends were made for writing.”
“The highest kind of writing—which must not be confused with the most ambitious kind…belongs to the realm of grace. Talent is part of it, certainly; a thorough understanding of the secret laws, absolutely. But finding the subject and theme which is in perfect harmony with your deepest nature, your forgotten selves, your hidden dreams, and the full unresonated essence of your life—now that cannot be reached through searching, nor can it be stumbled upon through ambition. That sort of serendipity comes upon you on a lucky day. It may emerge even out of misfortune or defeat. You may happen upon it without realising that this is the work through which your whole life will sing. We should always be ready. We should always be humble. Creativity should always be a form of prayer.”
“Writing is my life. Life is my hobby.”
“Without a doubt the two best words in the English language are The End”
“To work, her dumb lunge says, is to move a certain mass ...through a certain distance, is to pull your weight and feel exact and equal to it. Feel dragged upon. And buoyant.”
“Hardly anybody ever writes anything nice about introverts. Extroverts rule. This is rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts. We are been taught to be ashamed of not being outgoing . But a writer s job is ingoing.”
“The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you.”
“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you re doomed.”
“Writing is the great invention of the world.”
“it s been my experience that most writers don t talk about their craft--they just do it”
“In the middle of a novel, a kind of magical thinking takes over. To clarify, the middle of the novel may not happen in the actual geographical centre of the novel. By middle of the novel I mean whatever page you are on when you stop being part of your household and your family and your partner and children and food shopping and dog feeding and reading the post—I mean when there is nothing in the world except your book, and even as your wife tells you she’s sleeping with your brother her face is a gigantic semi-colon, her arms are parentheses and you are wondering whether rummage is a better verb than rifle. The middle of a novel is a state of mind. Strange things happen in it. Time collapses.”