In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.

Yo ya no sé que escribir… Es mi forma de saber que ya te olvidé

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with...

He asked me an important question, so I said nothing, but silently reached for a piece of paper and scribbled down the words: Peacocks love peach cobbler.

Dear, I can’t write, it’s all a fantasy: a kind of circling obsession.

All writers should be put in a box and thrown in the sea.

Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelist’s business is lying. The weather bureau will tell you what next Tuesday will be like, and the...

If she did experience sex–or something close to it–in high school, I’m sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity.

DYER. No, I am not of your Mind, for the Dialogue was fitted up with too much Facility. Words must be pluckt from Obscurity and nourished with Care, improved with Art and corrected with Application....

Polysyllables obfuscate a preponderant ignorance with so much more style and panache.

Silently I dance a dance of chaos to the rhythm of a dying sun

The pen that was once a gift has come to represent all that I hope to achieve.

Blank pages are like monsters that haunt my dreams until I feed them words.

The paper is patient, but the reader is not.

People approach writers, assuming we pull a perfect text out of our nose each time (well spelled). Spelling is the least of it.

There comes a point at which you stop writing and think all the more

The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one–or both. Usually both.

Archive material is vital to the writer of historical fiction.

As long as you write, you’ll never be lonely.

It’s not the destination (of seeking the truth) that creates our dignity or integrity, it’s the journey. From Messages From a Grandfather, by Robert Gately

It’s always been important for writers to be disciplined but now even more so. In addition to the traditional displacement activities like cleaning the fridge or eating cake writers are faced with a plethora of...

When a writer is able to experience the whole range of human emotions, from deep depressions to glorious highs, it creates a whole inventory of feelings and musings from which they can choose and infuse...

A writer is like a tuning fork: We respond when we’re struck by something. The thing is to pay attention, to be ready for radical empathy. If we empty ourselves of ourselves we’ll be able...

Sometimes I create a character from a scrap – a mere mention that has been left behind.

I was trying to learn to write, commencing with the simplest things, and one of the simplest things of all and the most fundamental is violent death.

Uncertainty is as good a way as any to kill a story.

The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand; and write when there is something that you know; and not before; and not too damned...

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and...

self-published, ghost-written book” is wrong because the concept behind self publishing is that you have knowledge or emotions that you want to express. Whenpeople read a book—particularly a self-published one—they have the right to expect...

Writing means not just staring ugliness in the face, but finding a way to embrace it.

The most clear-sided view of the darkest possible situation is itself an act of optimism

If you live with dogs, you’ll never run out of things to write about.

A novel is like a dream in which everyone is you. They’re all parts of yourself.

Ennui had more distractions far more amusing than the automatons of a watchmaker in Mühlenberg.

I believe the greatest pleasure in writing is in the progressive artistry of it. Each project is an attempt to do better than before – to produce a worthy work of art – something having...

Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

One day you will tell me how to change what I cannot yet describe without my words swelling HUGE, vowels vanishing, tears washing ink away.

There are fascinating possibilities in this situation. I’d get it down on paper if I were you.

I usually get the title for a book first, and I type it up immediately. I sit there and look at it and admire it, and I think to myself, I just need four thousand...

Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don’t exist?” And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would...

Writing help us to express our thoughts, to share experiences, to think, to love, to inspire, to motivate, to challenge, to liberate, to learn, to hope, to smile and to wonder.

Write the poems.

I’ve said for years — ever since I figured out how to write Goblin Hero — that it’s important to give yourself permission to write crap. Perfection is the destroyer of art. It’s paralyzing. Art,...

The writer’s life: Hard days, lots of work, no money, too much silence. Nobody’s fault. You chose it.

Hear me now or regret it later: Everything you write must be read aloud. Once all the context items are in place, this is the final test for any written piece…Do not neglect your sense...

Dedication. DEDICATION. That is the only way to become a writer. Write every day. Write until your fingers bleed, your eyes bleed, your soul bleeds. From that blood, stories are born. It’s worth it.

If you’re a writer, the problem is that, when you try to call a halt to thinking about your novel-in-progress, your imagination still keeps going; you can’t shut it off.

Writing the middle of a novel is a lot like driving through Texas. You think it’s never going to end, and the scenery looks the same.

Grammar perfect books are for Ivy Leaguers in Ivory Towers. My book is a sandcastle built on the beach of usefullness.

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.