Anne Carson Quotes

I find it both fascinating and disconcerting when I discover yet another person who believes that writing can't be taught. Frankly, I don't understand this point of view.

People say you can't teach writing, but I think that's nonsense.

I never was a big believer that you can teach writing per se.

I never think that any writer can teach someone how to write.

Writing can't be taught.

A creative writing program is only as good as its teachers, and I was fortunate in having two great writers as mentors.

I'm not a writer who teaches. I'm a teacher who writes.

I teach a non-fiction writing class at New York University, and one of my great pleasures is deciding on the syllabus.

I think that, in principle, a workshop is such a beautiful idea - an environment in which writers who are collectively apprenticed to the craft of writing can come together in order to collectively improve.

There is a whole industry in America of people who want to write, and those who teach it. Even if the students don't end up writing, what's good about them taking the courses is, they become great readers, learning to appreciate the writing.

You don't teach information in a writing workshop.

Creative writing lessons can be very useful, just like music lessons can be useful. To say, as Hanif Kureishi did, that 99.9% of students are talentless is cruel and wrong. I believe that certain writers like to believe they arrived into the world with special, unteachable powers because it is good for the ego.

No one can help you write. No one can teach you how to write.

In teaching writing, I'm learning new things about writing.

I've been trying to write. I also spent a lot of time on different campuses, in conversation, helping other writers. That's what I do: I teach them writing.

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 think you have to learn for yourself how to write. I'm slightly mystified by creative writing courses - God love them - because I can't understand how you can explain a process that I find so baffling.

I think all writing is done through memory.

You become a great writer by writing.

I taught writing classes at the University of Pennsylvania for a number of years and I realized that all you can do is encourage people and give them assignments and hope they will write them.

I started writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself, circling it and getting closer. I had no idea how to write fiction. So I did journalism because there were rules I could learn. You can teach someone to write a news story. They might not write a great one, but you can teach that pretty easily.

Writers are so important.

I love writers. All of my best friends are writers.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

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.