Quotes on Creativity And Writing

People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.

Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.

Anecdotes don't make good stories. Generally I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything really good.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't write.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.

Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we're all in this together.

To draw you must close your eyes and sing.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.