writing

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."

"Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got."

"great writers are indecent peoplethey live unfairlysaving the best part for paper.good human beings save the worldso that bastards like me can keep creating art,become immortal.if you read this after I am deadit means I made it."

"The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired."

"The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him...A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it."

"The public wants work which flatters its illusions."

"But the truth is, it's not the idea, it's never the idea, it's always what you do with it."(Online journal entry for January 31, 2009)"

"writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all"

"You know, everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects."

"A big enough artist, I say, can eat anything, must eat everything and then alchemize it. Only the feeble writer is afraid of expansion."

"I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil."

"Writing well means never having to say, "I guess you had to be there."

"I was supposed to write a romantic comedy, but my characters broke up."

"I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know."

"I write to understand as much as to be understood."

"Have you thought of an ending?""Yes, several, and all are dark and unpleasant.""Oh, that won't do! Books ought to have good endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?""It will do well, if it ever came to that.""Ah! And where will they live? That's what I often wonder."

"Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch."

"فكم من الأشياء قد تحدث لنا بسبب ما نقرأ.ذلك أن ثمة قراءات تفعل بنا فعل الكتابة، وتوصلنا إلى حيث لا نتوقع !"

"Let's get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up."

"All novels are sequels; influence is bliss."