Terry Pratchett Quotes

As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness.

As a journalist for 35 years, and now author for 20, I've learned that there's always more.

I started writing when I was about thirteen.

A writer is always, always searching, even against her will, against all her better instincts, for the thread of a story. Everything is fodder. Everything is fuel. You can feel it coming on like the tingling of a sore throat. The brain never stops struggling to reshape every experience and feeling into a coherent narrative.

Now, as a writer, the whole world is your nail polish display, and what's more, you can help yourself. A thrilling, colourful array of gorgeous human peculiarity revolves before your eyes, and you still can't quite believe it's all yours for the taking.

You don't have to go fight bulls in Spain like Hemingway to write something great, or go off to war. It's right under your nose.

I believe in my writing.

I've always been a writer.

I think writers are observers and watchers. We always have our ears open and eyes open, so I might see something in everyday life that inspires me. And I think that's probably more than anything else. Everyday life is where I get my inspiration.

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

I started writing when I was about 20, 21 maybe.

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.

My aunt got me interested in journalism - she found an old typewriter, had it worked over, put it on the dining room table, gave me a stack of paper and said, 'Play like you're a writer.'

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.

I'm a journalist and author. I make my living by finding things out and writing about them.

My intent was to gain experience for fiction I eventually hoped to write. But there's no question I was drawn in by the hope that journalism would be a creative, thrilling environment.

I've always enjoyed writing, I graduated with a degree in English; I've done bits of journalism.

I don't know anyone who is a writer who isn't influenced by the relationships in their life.

The idea that an author can extricate her or his own ongoing life experience from the tale being written is a conceit of very little worth.

A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.

As a writer, I've always been interested in others.

When you write a book, you're an expert, and people look at you in a different way.

For a novelist, no matter what, it's a complete work, even if it's not published. But if you write a screenplay, and it's not performed, then it's a sad and frustrating experience.

I have dreamt of being an author since the age of 14, and writing about my experiences has always been a part of digesting an experience and sharing it with others.

Writing has always been an interest of mine, and 'The Language of Flowers' combined my experience with foster care with something I've always wanted to do.