Jesmyn Ward Quotes

I had never written anything before in my life except maybe in high school when I wrote a short story, and my mother had to put an ending on that.

I've taken every writing class I've had available. I took classes in high school, and I took English and writing classes in community college, but I dropped out of college. I also attended a local writing workshop two years ago.

I'm not a born writer, and I don't enjoy writing.

I'm a reluctant writer of non-fiction, in part because I don't really feel qualified.

It is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting doesn't inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years.

I studied writing at NYU. I graduated high school in Nashville and then went to the creative writing program, and in the first year, that's when I wrote 'Kids.'

I wrote all the time, and I had teachers who encouraged it.

I think one of the keys to better writing is releasing all of your ideas and to not be afraid. Dream big. This could be the greatest novel in the world you know.

All experience helps when you write.

I mean, the problem is, I think I'm a great writer.

I find writing really difficult - definitely the most difficult of all the things I do.

I think writing is such a great talent, and if I was better, I would love to be a writer.

There's a lot of young authors out there, and people do seem to forget: in order to write well, you do need to have some experience.

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.

I had neither expert aid nor advice. I studied no courses in writing; until a year or so ago, I never read a book by anybody advising writers how to write.

I spent several years acquiring the obsessive, day-to-day discipline that's needed if you want to write professionally, then several more, highly valuable years studying fiction writing at the University of Iowa.

Everyone said, 'Well, you're very old for a first novel,' and I said, 'How do you write when you haven't lived? How do you write when you have no experience? How do you write straight out of university?'

I did not go to any creative writing workshop; I did not major in literature. If I can write, anyone can write. All it needs is imagination.

I didn't start writing until late high school and then I was just diddling. Mainly I loved to read and my writing was an outgrowth of that.

I have learned many things in the 30 years that I have been writing.

You know, writing is really difficult, and it takes a real patience and a skill. I don't know if I have that. I admire it in others, so much, and I envy it.

I like writing a lot more than I used to. I used to find it scary but now I've got used to it once it gets going. I used to find it hard to start. Fear of the blank page. The first thing you write down won't bear any relation to what's in your head and that's always disappointing.

I'm not a very good writer. I'm working at it.

I really hate to write.

I can't read fiction when I'm writing fiction, because I get intimidated if I read something really good.