I find that biographical material holds me back, hampers my creative process, cramps my imagination.

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

In fact, the very phrase "teaching creative writing" sounds to me oxymoronic. How can you teach someone to be creative?

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

I was always creatively stubborn, adverse to editing by others, and wanted to use the kind of Ukrainian we spoke among ourselves rather than the more…

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

Except for the usual house chores, doing income tax, etc., I am free to write whenever I want.

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

I must say that, on the whole, I prefer fiction to poetry.

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

Imagination is so much more fertile than life.

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

I always lived in a multilingual society (Polish-Ukrainian, German-Ukrainian, English-Ukrainian), and was open to outside linguistic influences. I th…

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

How can you teach someone to be creative? You have to create yourself.

- Yuriy Tarnawsky

That is one more reason why I write in English only right now. I prefer writing in the language I hear around me for the people by whom I am surround…

- Yuriy Tarnawsky