Katherine Mansfield Quotes

When I write, I operate as a writer and a reader both - I never know what's going to happen.

As far as writing, it's grown because I've really grown comfortable with who I am.

Never forget that the truest luxury is imagination, and that being a writer gives you the leeway to exploit all of the imagination's curious intricacies, to be what you were, what you are, what you will be, and what everyone else is or was or will be, too.

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.

When you write what you know, you stay in control. One of the first things I encourage my writing students to do is to lose control - say what they want to say, break structure.

Writing is hard work, but a lot of fun, too. It allows me to live out some of my fantasies.

In fiction, you have a rough idea what's coming up next - sometimes you even make a little outline - but in fact you don't know. Each day is a whole new - and for me, a very invigorating - experience.

I didn't have any agenda or plan when I started writing stuff.

I could always imagine more interesting places to be than where I was. And more interesting people than me being there. Eventually, this led to making up stories and writing things down.

If I knew a story page by page before I started writing it, I just wouldn't do it. The process of discovery is really important for my own enjoyment.

I'm addicted to creating and writing.

I suppose I have an active imagination, and writing allows me to live it out.

Every time I write a new book, I want to push myself to try something different.

But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.

Fluency can be a sign that nothing is happening; fluency can actually be my signal to stop, while being in the dark from sentence to sentence is what convinces me to go on.

I get to use fiction as a way to work out my thinking and to delight readers in the process. I can't think of any deal that's better for me, and I'm always so grateful that readers have indulged me as I argue with myself in my stories.

You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.

I feel I've got 10 books in me.

The nice thing about being a writer is that you can make magic happen without learning tricks.

Blank paper has always inspired me.

I write poetry anyway and have for years and years. For me, putting fiction and poetry together is like the best of both worlds.

I like to sit down every day and not know where the book is going. I have no idea where the book is going to go or how it's going to end as I'm writing it.

The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.

When I'm writing my blog, I think of myself at 13 years old, back in St. Louis, daydreaming about Hollywood.

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry - writing at writing.