Mary Balogh Quotes

I'm of the ilk of writers that feels you have to be open to the inspiration.

My next book - each one while I'm working on it - dances in my mind and thrills me at every turn. If it didn't, why would I write it?

I discovered that writing was very nice indeed when I was very young, and I never changed. I don't think my style has changed very much at all - though I hope what I say is a bit more interesting. It's about getting to know a character and loving them, I think.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

I think enthusiasm is the answer to passionate writing.

I mean, if you lined up 100 writers, you'd get 100 different ways in which they write. There's no right way or wrong way to do it; it's whatever your process is.

What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.

I tell people you should write what you love to read because that's where your passion is.

If you aren't having fun, if you aren't anxious to find out what happens next as you write, then not only will you run out of steam on the story, but you won't be able to entertain anyone else, either.

I write what's given me to write.

I spend a lot of time writing. I get inspiration from texts rather than images.

The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.

I do not go down and sit in front of the computer and make myself write; that's not my style.

The reason there's no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn't have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think.

The way to compose for me is to have lots of time.

It usually helps me write by reading - somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

Talking about how I might write the next book is like talking about whether or not to have sex. Any dithering ruins it.

What I tell young writers is to find those things that you're so passionate about that your energy doesn't run away.

What provides you with subject matter is your own language - and that's all.

I used to think that most published writers, the ones I admired, had a muse, or a special connection to the universe, to nature, or to aliens - something inaccessible to me that caused their prose to flow onto the page, already perfect.

I don't really like to just sit down at a computer and write, because that tends to be a little forced.

I'm way into writing, as much as I can.

I always had a thing for writing. Even when I was in school, I was always good at writing.

I watched 'Freaks and Geeks,' and I was like, 'Oh, if you write about your own personal experiences, and if you're specific about it both in what happened and how you felt about it, it can make for scenes that are really compelling.' For the rest of college, I was basically ripping off 'Freaks and Geeks' with plays I wrote and stuff like that.

Sloane Crosley and David Sedaris are two of my favorite writers; they're the kind of writers who make you feel like, 'I can do this. I want to do this.'