Gloria Naylor Quotes

I don't know why I write what I write.

Writing is an escape from a world that crowds me. I like being alone in a room. It's almost a form of meditation- an investigation of my own life.

I never know how much of what I say is true.

I am really puzzled to understand myself.

I'm not really sure if I have anything that inspires me.

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

I am sure of nothing so little as my own intentions.

There are times I can't even figure myself out.

Truth is a tendency.

I hate to look at the stuff I've written and consider what it means or why I do it.

I hate to write Solutions in my books because I don’t really have solutions.

You need to write about something that you really know about or you deeply connect with. Don't fake it.

Sometimes, I'm not sure why I wind up doing some of the things I do.

I am not sultry. I don't know what I am.

I'm not sure whether it is me changing my mind, or whether I lie a lot.

The only virtue on which I pride myself is my self-doubt; when a writer loses her self-doubt, the time has come to lay aside her pen.

Consolation for those moments when you can't tell whether you're the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.

I do know my own mind,' protested Anne. 'The trouble is, my mind changes and then I have to get acquainted with it all over again.

My friends tell me that I am an intruder, that I don't really write when I attempt poetry. But those of my friends who write in prose say that I'm no writer when I attempt prose. So really I don't know what to do, I'm in a quandary.

For most of my life, one of the persons most baffled by my own work was myself.

writing is the most personal form of prayer.

When I open my mouth and sing, the truth comes out. When I write, the truth comes out. I can't lie. That, I think, is one of the strongest elements of my music. When people talk about my writing as though I'm doing it from an accountant's perspective, it really pisses me off.

I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.

I've always defined myself as a writer, I've never decided what it was I was gonna write. [...] I always fancied myself one, but I'm not. I'm so far from a writer.

I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was.