I could write stories just as rotten.
I write to breathe life back into memory.
Songwriters write songs, but they really belong to the listener.
It's always been difficult for me to speak and express my innermost thoughts. I prefer to write. When I sit down and write, words grow very docile, they come and feed out of my hand like little birds, and I can do almost what I want with them; whereas when I try to marshal them in open air, they fly away from me.
Write what you care about and understand. Writers should never try to outguess the marketplace in search of a salable idea; the simple truth is that all good books will eventually find a publisher if the writer tries hard enough, and a central secret to writing a good book is to write on that people like you will enjoy.
I'm a full-time believer in writing habits. . . You may be able to do without them if you have genius but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits or it dries up and blows awayOf course you have to make your habits in this conform to what you can do. I write only about two hours every day because that's all the energy I have, but I don't let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place.
I write a lot. I used to write a lot of poetry when I was younger, write for my school newspapers. Also reading is very important because you need to be on your word game if you want to be a lyricist.
You must write for the waste basket.
I think many writers write because it's a convenient way to explain themselves to themselves. We take the chaos and the turmoil and the bullshit of our lives, and we make it into something that has a harmonious shape and sound.
I don't have a plan for a story when I sit down to write. I would get quite bored carrying it out.
I wish I could write more make-believe. It's a lot easier to write about hard times and when things are going wrong. But I've never been a private person.
Why can I write 'South' with some assurance that you'll know I mean Richmond and don't mean Phoenix? What is it that the South's boundaries enclose?
I write my lyrics the day I sing the song, so even when I have the basic things, I'm thinking what can I change, what can I add, how many harmonies can I do.
Don't be too precious or attached to anything you write. Let things be malleable.
If you don't have obsessions, don't write. my characters are obsessed.
When you write you have a certain vision of how it could be and it's great to be able to see it all the way to the goal line.
Well, I would definitely give up performing. . . But I would still sit down in an office and pretend to write with Dawn, even if we never produced anything, because it's just hilarious. I would miss that.
I escaped the [Southern-writer] label because I didn't and don't write about the South.
You can't say, I won't write today because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then. . . you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer.
I write and that way rid myself of me and then at last I can rest.