The idea that you could make a living from writing always thrilled me.
I'm a writer, and the subject is less important than the act of writing itself.
I always say three things make a writer: inspiration, obviously; perspiration, doing the work. But the third is desperation. I'm not really fit for anything else, or to have a real job. That fear drives me. The pressure has always been self inflicted.
Writing is so entwined with my being that I can't imagine a life without it.
I knew I wanted to be a writer before I knew that being a writer was possible.
A key to my thinking has always been the almost fanatical belief that what I was engaged in was a literary art form. That belief was compounded out of ego and necessity, I guess, a combination of the two.
I kind of got more interested in writing after I turned in my last college essay and nobody was going to tell me what kind of academic papers to write anymore. I could write whatever I wanted, and I realized that I actually liked it when I could choose what I would write.
You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life; the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.
I started writing in fourth grade and never stopped. I faked my way through high school and nearly was flushed from college - I still can't pay attention - and then had a series of day jobs. But always, continuously, I have written.
Writing isn't a job so much as a compulsion. I've been writing since I was very young because for some strange reason, I must write, and also because when I write, I feel more alive and closer to the world than when I'm not writing.
I started writing when I was 4.
I write because I have an innate need to. I write because I can't do normal work. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake of real life only by changing it.
To me, the most important thing is the script. I would never make a movie that I didn't write. I wouldn't know how to.
Writing is what I do. It's like breathing to me at a certain point, but if I couldn't write, I do like cooking.
I've never been a model, I was an actress for like a minute, but I've always been a writer. That's where I'm going to stay.
I don't write for publishers, certainly not for critics, and not for readers, But I am delighted that so many people have found my books enjoyable and want to continue to read them.
I always loved writing, but never considered that I could do it professionally.
If you're going to write for a living, you should find something fun to write.
I was writing all my childhood. And I wrote two novels when I was 17, which were terrible. And I'm not sorry I threw them out. So, I wrote. I had to write. You know, the thing was, I had no education.
Unlike a typical professional, I can't quit my job to become a full-time author; I don't have that luxury. For me, writing is therapy; if I choose to write full-time, it might start feeling like work.
A writer writes. Period. No matter if someone is buying your work or not.
As a writer, I am constantly aware that I take my life in my hands with everything I do and say. It's just a fact of life. For me it always has been.
Being an editor has been a source of great satisfaction, but writing is the thing I truly love.
If I didn't write, I'd be like a duvet cover; I have no other marketable skills.
Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art.
