“It's was all the internet. I started writing songs in high school, right about the time of the onset of Napster. I went to college in Dallas, and when I'd get back from class I'd have fans emailing me from different areas of the country asking when the album was going to be out and when I was going on tour. It was crazy, because I didn't even consider myself a professional musician.” WritingDifferentCountrySchoolSongCrazyCollegeInternetMusicianHigh School Author:Graham Colton
“I wasn't all that attracted to writing originally. I read a great deal. My parents read a great deal. I do know that as my interest in tennis waned, my interest in academics increased. I mean, I started doing my homework in high school and discovering that it was somewhat fun. And then in college I barely even played on the team because just classes were much more interesting.” KnowsWritingMeanSchoolFunParentInterestInterestingDealsClassTeamCollegeHigh SchoolTennisDiscoveringHomework Author:David Foster Wallace
“We kind of just got more mature and more realistic with what we're doing. We kinda said, "We quit our jobs and we quit college to do this, and we're going to be playing these songs every day just about, y'know, on a stage... so let's write songs that we're never gonna get sick of playing." Songs that aren't just gonna follow a trend of what's going on right now, y'know?” KnowsWritingKindSaidJobsSongStageCollegeRight NowSickQuittingMatureTrendsRealistic Author:Jordan Buckley
“You don't need to see my birth certificate, or my college records, or my legal writings, or... anything.” NeedsWritingRecordsCollegeBirthCertificatesBirth Certificate Author:Barack Obama
“In high school, I wanted to be an actress. Until I got to college and took some creative writing courses. Then I decided I wanted to become a novelist.” WritingWantedSchoolCoursesCreativeCollegeHigh SchoolDecidedActressesNovelistsCreative Writing Author:Meg Cabot
“I wrote poetry in middle school and high school and even through college. It was bad. I just don't think I'm very good at writing poetry. I mean, the distillation, I think, is hard for me, but I love poetry.” ThinkingWritingMeanHardSchoolMiddleCollegeHigh SchoolVery GoodLove PoetryMiddle SchoolWriting PoetryDistillation Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I was influenced by the Beats because I actually just began to commit adolescence around 1955, when "Howl" and Rebel Without a Cause and a lot of other new things were popping up. (Again I'm trying to give you a finite version of this career.) And then I came under the sway of Wallace Stevens when I was in college and graduate school, and basically set as a life goal the ambition of writing third-rate Wallace Stevens. I thought I would be completely content if I was recognized at some later point in my life as a third-rate Wallace Stevens.” IfsGivingWritingTryingWould BeSchoolCausesGoalCareersCollegeAmbitionBeatsThirdsRateCommitVersionsRebelGraduatesNew ThingsAdolescenceFiniteLife GoalHowlGraduate SchoolPoppingRebels Without A Cause Author:Billy Collins
“I feel like I partly came to writing through being in college during the start of the Iraq war, and knowing that those issues mattered lot to me, and wanting to go see for myself.” FeelsWritingWarKnowingIssuesCollegeIraqIraq War Author:Sarah Stillman
“Before I got my present job, I spent many years teaching writing part-time, so-called, at community colleges and universities. It's academia's version of migrant labor.” WritingYearsJobsCommunityTeachingCollegeLaborUniversityVersionsAcademiaMigrantsPart TimeColleges And UniversitiesCommunity CollegeTeaching Writing Author:Debra Dean
“I've lost my writing skills since college. I couldn't write a book. It would take a long time.” WritingLongBookLostCollegeSkillsLong TimeWriting Skills Author:Stephen Malkmus
“I'm a product of state schools. I had a working-class family. We had no books. I was the first to go to college. But I didn't really think about it, or about making money. I was just going to be an artist, and I've been fortunate. I've never had to work for anybody nor have I had to write for money. Maybe that's another reason that I've been able to be productive. I haven't had to use my writing to make a living.” ThinkingWritingFirstsBookStatesReasonUseAbleSchoolArtistClassHavensCollegeProductsMaking MoneyFortunateProductiveWorking Class Author:T.C. Boyle
“None of my English teachers in college were praising me or telling me I was anything special. But then in creative writing classes they were. And I enjoyed those more anyway.” WritingClassCreativeTeacherSpecialCollegePraiseEnjoyedCreative WritingEnglish Teacher Author:John Brandon
“The fact that my students could be in a little college in a little college town on the coast of Rhode Island, and be connecting in other countries with other people, did open them up and empower them and their sense of being. Whether it affected their writing, it's hard to tell.” PeopleWritingLittlesCountryHardFactsStudentsCollegeTownsIslandsEmpoweringAffectedOther CountriesCoastConnectingRhode Island Author:Adam Braver
“When I was in college I started writing prose, because a very smart professor asked me what I like to read and I said, "Novels," and she said, "You should be writing them then." Memoir never even occurred to me. I think I was afraid of nonfiction and I was afraid of navel-gazing, and of being seen.” ThinkingShouldWritingSaidNovelCollegeSmartMemoirProseProfessorsNonfictionGazingVery SmartNavelNavel Gazing Author:Melissa Febos
“Early on, even in college, I figured out that it was just more interesting to me to create content than to write about other people. So that makes it more marketable.” PeopleWritingInterestingCollege Author:Joel Stein
“By the time I got to college I had stopped reading books because I wanted to "be cool" and started reading books simply because I wanted to read them. I discovered heroes like Roth, King, Dahl, Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, TC Boyle, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, David Sedaris. These people weren't trying to "rebel against the literary establishment." They were trying to write great, high-quality books that were as entertaining and moving as possible.” PeopleWritingTryingBookWantedMovingReadingQualityCollegeKingsHeroRebelEstablishmentReading BooksEntertainingBeing CoolHigh QualityGaiman Author:Simon Rich
“Around the time I dropped out of college, I decided to start taking what I liked about short stories and apply it to writing songs - to make these things that would change and keep going.” WritingStoriesSongCollegeDecidedKeep GoingShort StoryWriting Songs Author:Avey Tare
“I always thought I was going to be on the other side of the camera. That's where I found myself. I found out that I could write when I was 17, right before you go to college, so it was a passion of mine.” WritingPassionFoundSidesMinesCollegeCameras Author:O'Shea Jackson, Jr.
“hough I was creative, I also liked math and science. At Knox College, I studied creative writing and earned a degree in chemistry, thinking I would attend medical school. Ultimately, I decided that a career in nursing would allow more time for pursuing other creative interests. While I worked as an RN, I wrote stories inspired by my patients, designed t-shirts, and made hand-painted sandals.” ThinkingWritingMadeStoriesHandsSchoolInterestCareersCreativeCollegeDegreesDecidedInspiredPatientMathMedicalShirtsMore TimeChemistryT ShirtCreative WritingNursingMath And ScienceMedical SchoolSandals Author:Mary Pope Osborne
“From about the age of 15 or 16 I'd had the notion that I wanted to write fiction, and I'd done enough in college to satisfy myself that I had a knack for it - I wouldn't call it "talent" - though I wondered if I'd ever have the guts to actually commit to it.” IfsWritingDoneEnoughAgeWantedFictionTalentCollegeNotionCommitGutsKnack Author:Ben Fountain
“I did a lot of writing when I was in college, and that's what I thought I wanted to do; saying that I wanted to be a writer seemed more reasonable than saying I wanted to be a musician.” WritingWantedCollegeMusicianReasonable Author:Jack Tatum
“I guess that would have been 1968. I was a freshman in college and I wasn't writing good poems, but I was at least trying to write poems then.” WritingTryingHas BeensCollegeFreshman Author:Edward Hirsch
“Wrote my first "novel" when I was six. Studied a bit in college, but then pursued history... But when I started writing professionally, it was mostly learn as you go.” WritingFirstsBitsNovelCollegeSixPursued Author:David B. Coe
“In the first 27 years of my life, I never had written a single non-technical word. I went to engineering college and went to business school. I never knew I could write fiction of any form.” WritingYearsFirstsSchoolFormFictionWrittenCollegeEngineeringBusiness School Author:Karan Bajaj
“The reality that we were growing up in was very young and vibrant, and nobody was capturing that part of India. I started to backpack after getting out of college. I hiked and did a lot of things nobody was capturing in art at all in India, so I wrote my first novel. It was a very, trippy, experience-filled novel, and it ended up doing very well in India because nobody was writing about that at that point.” WritingFirstsWellsArtRealityYoungNovelGrowing UpGrowingCollegeIndiaFilledTrippy Author:Karan Bajaj
“I used to do a lot of story writing and storytelling coming up through grade school. By the time I got to college, I decided that I wanted to perform as well, and that's where I started.” WritingWellsStoriesWantedSchoolUsedCollegeDecidedStorytellingGradesGrades In SchoolStory Writing Author:Rhea Seehorn
“I went to college to study hospitality. I quickly got out of that and realized that what I liked to do was write.” WritingStudyCollegeHospitality Author:Richard Ford
“I got to college in '99, and I went to study literature and writing, and so within a couple years we had Bush elected, 9/11, we were at war, so I was sort of having my political and spiritual awakening at the same time I was becoming an adult, and that's a lot of stuff at once. I became very focused on the state of the world, and I started studying that stuff more, and I just had a real identity crisis. I couldn't even really just study literature.” WorldWritingYearsWarRealStatesSpiritualPoliticalLiteratureStuffStudyIdentityCollegeCoupleBecomingAdultsCrisisFocusedAwakeningSpiritual AwakeningIdentity CrisisBecoming An Adult Author:Gaby Hoffmann
“The biggest influence on my writing, besides snagging some ideas about black humor, was that the paper mill had a program where they paid 75 percent of the tuition and book [costs] for employees who wanted to go to college part-time.” WritingBookIdeasWantedBlackInfluenceCollegeCostPaperPercentProgramPaidEmployeeMillsPart TimeTuitionBlack Humor Author:Donald Ray Pollock
“Early on in life I knew that I was a writer, that I just wanted to write, I love books, I love literature and after graduating college, I kind of wandered around in Europe learning languages and writing novels and never led anywhere. And then I got into like journalism in New York as a way to kind of maybe find my way into the field and it wasn't a good fit. It just wasn't right for me.” WayWritingKindBookWantedLiteratureLanguageNovelNew YorkFieldsCollegeFitEuropeJournalismMy WayGraduatesCollege GraduatesLearning LanguageLove Literature Author:Robert Greene
“I studied physics at Princeton when I was a college student, and my initial intention was to major in it but to also be a writer. What I discovered, because it was a very high-powered physics program with its own fusion reactor, was that to keep up with my fellow students in that program I would need to dedicate myself to math and physics all the time and let writing go. And I couldn't let writing go, so I let physics go and became a science fan and a storyteller.” NeedsWritingFansStudentsCollegeMajorsProgramFellowsIntentionMathPhysicsStorytellerInitialsFusionCollege StudentsPrinceton Author:Jon Spaihts
“I think I learned more about writing scores for Broadway by making mix tapes in the '90s than I did in college. You're learning about rise and fall and energy and tempo shifts. You're showing off your taste and your references. You're trying to be witty by - through placement of music you didn't write.” ThinkingWritingTryingFallEnergyCollegeTasteWittyScoreTapeBroadwayTempoShowing OffRise And FallPlacement Author:Lin-Manuel Miranda
“I tried to go to community college for a while, and it's a funny story. I walked into the English class on the first day, and they told us to write about what we did over the summer. I can't remember exactly, but I think I walked out exactly at that point and went to the office to ask for my money back.” ThinkingWritingFirstsI CanStoriesRememberAsksCommunityClassCollegeOfficeSummerCommunity CollegeFunny StoryEnglish Class Author:Zach Condon
“I had lots of time to read [being a lawyer] what I hadn't read in my school and college days. Being a bad student I barely passed my exams and I barely bothered about books. It was sports all the time. I started reading and got involved in literature and writing. The few cases I handled gave me the material for my early short stories.” WritingBookStoriesSchoolReadingLiteratureSportsCasesStudentsCollegeMaterialsInvolvedLawyerShort StoryBotheredExamCollege Days Author:Khushwant Singh
“The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know.” KnowsWritingSchoolCreativeCollegeHigh SchoolFormulasCreative Writing Author:Toni Morrison
“The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know. And I said they don't know nothing. Imagine something. Do you know what it's like to be a Madame in Paris, when you're too old to have any clients. No, you don't. I don't either. Write about it.” KnowsWritingSaidSchoolCreativeImagineCollegeHigh SchoolParisDo You KnowFormulasClientsCreative Writing Author:Toni Morrison
“I majored in English in college and that was my major in graduate school before switching to creative writing. I read a lot of [Charles] Dickens and [Anthony ] Trollope, but there was lots of stuff I hadn't read like Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," which is so well written and funny.” WritingWellsSchoolStuffCreativeWrittenCollegeMajorsFairsVanityGraduatesCreative WritingDickensWell WrittenGraduate SchoolSwitchingVanity Fair Author:Stephen Dobyns
“From about ninth grade on, I knew I was a writer at heart. I had fantasies of being a great novelist, but I thought that seemed like an iffy way to try to make a living. So I tried journalism while in college, and really liked it. But even in journalism, I've always pursued ways to be somewhat literary, whether writing a column or writing books.” WayWritingTryingHeartBookFantasyCollegeJournalismNovelistsGradesPursuedColumnsWriting A BookNinth Grade Author:Kevin Maney
“Movies are definitely more fun because there are so many different seasons in a movie. It is exciting to be drafting together. Writing a book is very hard, it's like writing 15 college term papers in a row, and you are just like, "when is going to end?" You can communicate so much more when you are writing a book, and you can go so much deeper.” WritingBookDifferentEndsHardTogetherFunTermCollegePaperSeasonsExcitingCommunicateDeeperPapersWriting A BookDraftingTerm Paper Author:Stephen Kendrick
“For those of us who got into good colleges or the professions, did we stand up to that high school history teacher who told us some ridiculous lie about American history and say, "That's a ridiculous lie. You're an idiot"? No. We said, "All right, I'll keep quiet, and I'll write it in the exam and I'll think, yes, he's an idiot." And it's easy to say and believe things that improve your self-image and your career and that are in other ways beneficial to yourselves.” ThinkingWayWritingBelieveSaidSelfSchoolLyingEasyCareersTeacherCollegeQuietHigh SchoolProfessionRidiculousIdiotAmerican HistoryBeneficialExamHistory TeacherGood CollegeSchool History Author:Noam Chomsky
“I thought clarity of communication was the most important thing in writing, and if you really cared about getting your idea across, you would say it in the most straightforward way possible. Later, in college and grad school, I came to realize that language is a technology like any other, and that it's always evolving - clarity of expression is always evolving.” IfsWayWritingImportantIdeasSchoolLanguageRealizingTechnologyCollegeExpressionCommunicationImportant ThingsClarityEvolveStraightforwardGradGrad School Author:Elif Batuman