William Finnegan Quotes

I first tried a novel when I was 14. First finished one when I was 16. First started working on stuff that had a chance of being salable in my early 20s, then didn't write much fiction at all because I was in grad school.

Though The Kite Runner was my first completed novel, I had been writing on and off for most of my life, primarily short stories, and primarily for myself.

I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best.

The fact that people will pay you to talk to people and travel to interesting places and write about what intrigues you, I am just amazed by that.

Writing is as big a part of my career as acting is, financially and time wise. So, yeah, I love it. That's all I wanted to do since I was young was be a writer. So that and acting are the two most important aspects of my career.

Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.

I decided to become an author when my grandmother taught me to write, when I was six. I can still recall the sensation of being able to turn words into stories. It was a miracle.

When I want to read a novel, I write one.

I got into writing short stories and blogs while on the road.

Writing is the main gig and teaching and performing are sidelines, an excuse for not writing more. Working on a novel and on an opera make me seriously want to retire and find a volunteer job as a docent at the zoo explaining to schoolchildren where frogs go in the winter.

Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.

Writing a short story is like having a short intense affair, whereas writing a novel is like a long rich marriage.

I want to write novels. I want to write stories. I want to do the stuff that I became a writer to do.

For the years I spent working on it, 'Constellation' was the only novel I knew how to write, so maybe I still abided by the maxim? Regardless, I prefer the maxim: Write what you want to know, rather than what you already know.

I'm more interested in writing than in performing.

My relatives used to laugh when I talked of being a writer.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

I thought I'd definitely be a writer, whatever I did.

There's many times this year I've sat back and thought, I'm making a living from making things up. It's the only skill I have so I've been really lucky.

Everyone has early fiction fantasies, but it wasn't until my second child Betsy was born that I allowed the urge to write a novel bubble up.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

I saw novelists as being admirable people and I thought... I thought... maybe, one day, I could be one of them.

The only way to be a novelist, to think that you can create something others will give themselves up to for a dozen hours or more, is to have psychotic self-belief.

I'm one of those sad cases who've never wanted to be anything but a writer. I started writing my first novel when I was five years old. I have no idea what it was about, but I do remember spending considerable time trying to get the title right, though this had more to do with crayon colour than scansion.

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