without deep pain, pen does not bleed to write.

Writing, painting, singing- it cannot stop everything. Cannot halt death in its tracks. But perhaps it can make the pause between death’s footsteps sound and look and feel beautiful, can make the space of waiting...

The trouble is, writing the damn thing is like unscrewing your skull and pouring the contents of your brain into an empty tank. The tank has a shape, more or less – has more or...

If we can write or sing or create in some way, even when we are dealing with difficulties or pain, then it becomes something bigger than ourselves — and often beautiful.

If you could describe my son in 3 words, what would you say? – Sweet. Cute. Funny. – That could be a description of a puppy she says dryly.

It never ceases to amaze me how prosaic, pedestrian, unimaginative people can persistently pontificate about classical grammatical structure as though it’s fucking rocket science. These must be the same people who hate Picasso, because he...

To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” —Allen Ginsberg, WD

Words are beads on the strings of sentences. So make a beautiful necklace!

In any case, the goal is the same: to connect.

I believe in magic. Writing is my magic wand, and through my magic I create my own secret world, away from all these worries and responsibilities. Love, honesty and humanity is essential to enter this...

Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician.

I write because I have to; because I wouldn’t know what to do with my hands if I didn’t.

T[he rules of writing] require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it.

First time I ever put pen to paper, I had one goal – to build something no one had ever thought of before.

Sometimes I don’t even know why I’m writing what I’m writing…I’m just following these people around and taking notes.

A writer’s goal is to weave the ordinary into fine silk and the truly extraordinary into diaphanous clarity …

Learn to write by doing it. Read widely and wisely. Increase your word power. Find your own individual voice though practicing constantly. Go through the world with your eyes and ears open and learn to...

The principles of storytelling do not change. Going home. Coming of age. Sin and redemption. The hero. The journey, The power of love. They are hardwired into us, just like our taste buds process sweet,...

You are not eternal. Leave an eternal mark.

What began the change was the very writing itself. Let no one lightly set about such a work. Memory, once waked, will play the tyrant.

When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: ‘House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.

A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.

If you you write with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you...

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.

You always get more respect when you don’t have a happy ending.

Yet I am incapable of writing the only kind of novel which interests me: a book powered with an intellectual or moral passion strong enough to create order, to create a new way of looking...

Write to your heart’s content and by all means, have fun with your creation. It’s your moment to do absolutely anything within those pages.

What would normal people think if they knew what went on in a writer’s mind below the surface? They’d think him even more around the bend than they had previously supposed if they could see...

I have had my say, as he wished. Now the book belongs, as he points out, to the world he claims to speak for.

The music lets me see the story but the story doesn’t let me write the words.

Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that’s wrong. They know less, that’s why they write. Trying to find out what everyone else takes for granted.

Not everyone will like what you write but there’s a certain group who’ll love what you write. Keep WRITING for them.

Maybe you didn’t need to know anything special to write a work of fiction. Maybe you didn’t need to delve into some kind of life question you knew you’d lived. Perhaps your subconscious would do...

Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a...

The p’int of good writing is to know when to stop.

When I started writingI was a sick teenagedfuck inside who partlythought I was the newMarquis de Sade, a bodydoomed to communicatewith Satan who was us-ing my sickness as hishome away from home,and there’s your proof.

Ideas aren’t magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.

I’m not gonna lie…sometimes this whole writing thing is a lonely business.

Dip your hands into life, scoop up memories, dreams, questions and ideas and weave them into stories.

Humor, drama, romance, whatever genre of entertainment you create or consume is only effective if it is challenging to your sensibilities. When the sexuality of seeing a woman’s ankles became trumped by her calf, society...

Just as anyone who listens to the muse will hear, you can write out of your own intention or out of inspiration. There is such a thing. It comes up and talks. And those who...

Journalism, to me, is just another drug – a free ride to scenes I’d probably miss if I stayed straight. But I’m neither a chemist nor an editor; all I do is take the pill...

I hate to be a nag, but you have got to read. Like most authors, I run creative writing workshops from time to time, and speak, when invited to writers’ circles and at summer schools,...

Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

Every moment offers a great opportunity to write.

I work hard, I work very hard. All the books at least 30 revisions.

You must be able to write. You must have a sense of form, of pattern, of design. You must have a respect for and a mastery over words.

Writing is like making love. Don’t worry about the orgasm, just concentrate on the process.

I am content when writing short stories.

There is a master way with words which is not learned but is instead developed: a deaf man develops exceptional vision, a blind man exceptional hearing, a silent man, when given a piece of paper…