Len Wein Quotes

Although I still occasionally paint and draw, my life has now been shaped by my writing.

I've always liked writing. Even when I was in art school and thought I was going to be a gallery painter, I liked to pair my artwork with writing. And so that naturally led to drawing comics.

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

Every artist makes himself born. It is very much harder than the other time, and longer.

I had always said to myself that forty was the cut off point of my apprenticeship which may for some people sound like a very long one, but the novel as art is a middle-aged art.

Because I'm such a creative person, and I've always got my nose in a book, I suppose it was only a matter of time before non-fiction turned into fiction again. But I never consciously set out to become a writer and I never thought I'd be doing the things I'm doing today.

The writing process isn't something I'm in love with. I'm an illustrator who writes.

I didn't know I was gonna be a writer when I started out.

Not taking criticism of your writing personally is an enormous step towards surviving the studio system.

Writing, like any art, is a continuing process of discovering the infinite possibilities of Life.

My friend advised me to go into studying art, which at first shocked me because art was so easy. It was just something I did, like breathing or brushing my teeth. It couldn't be a job. I had a much more difficult time writing plays, making myself sit at that typewriter and finish those things.

If you're going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art. A youngster told me recently that he was going to give himself a year to see if he has talent. A year! It takes a lifetime to see if you have it. Painting is total engagement.

The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented. Fragments of this nature are literary seeds. There may be many an infertile grain among them: nevertheless, if only some come up!

Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge. What he takes in he takes in normally the way any person takes in experience. But it is what is done with it in his mind, if he is a real writer, that makes his art.

I often give this metaphor where I say that writing short fiction is like surfing, while writing a novel is like navigating with your car. So when you navigate with your car, you want to get somewhere. When you surf, you don't want to get somewhere, you just don't want to fall off your board.

I started as a writer; I started writing when I was little. The acting and directing was an outgrowth of my desire to tell stories.

When I was young, I drew as often as I wrote.

When we don't have all the details about our characters, we have to make it up to fill in all the details. So, for me, writing and acting go hand in hand.

Get into your own creativity. Sketch and paint with different mediums and follow your heart.

I write for film or, in this case, television when I haven't got a play cooking.

I've always loved both writing and songwriting. The journey is fascinating to me.

I am discovering myself as a director all the time.

I was never interested in acting on film or in television, but I was always more inclined to writing and directing, and the exploration of character.

A writer is an artist. They're creating things out of thin air.

Acting is probably what I'm best at, but there are certain stories kind of rattling around in my head that I like the idea of developing over time.