#writing

"the writing of somemenis like a vast bridgethat carries youoverthe many thingsthat claw and tear.The Wine of Forever"

"Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?"

"I embrace the label of bad feminist because I am human. I am messy. I’m not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I’m right. I am just trying—trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself."

"You learn almost as much about a thinker from what he reads—in particular, what he likes and what he disdains—as from what he writes himself."

"You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair ... Come to it any way but lightly."

"A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it."

"If you have a dream, keep it. But write it down and take appropriate actions to see it manifest."

"Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace."

"Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon."

"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)"

"To love is to soar in the wild unexpectedly."

"Write to your fear."

"Science fiction is very well suited to asking philosophical questions; questions about the nature of reality, what it means to be human, how do we know the things that we think we know."

"Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses."

"I am telling you what I know—words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them."

"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."

"A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends."

"You gotta run more than your mouth to escape the treadmill of mediocrity. A true hustler jogs during the day, and sleepwalks at night."

"Wrote my way out of the hood...thought my way out of poverty! Don't tell me that knowledge isn't power. Education changes everything."

"When writing a novel, that's pretty much entirely what life turns into: 'House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day."