“Most of what I read is for reviewing purposes or related to something I want to write about. It's slightly utilitarian. I definitely miss that sense of being a disinterested reader who's reading purely for the pleasure of imagining his way into emotional situations and vividly realized scenes in nineteenth-century France or late nineteenth-century Russia.” WayWantWritingPurposeReadingPleasureSituationCenturyMissingEmotionalReaderSceneLateRussiaFranceRelatedNineteenth CenturyDisinterestedUtilitarian Author:Pankaj Mishra
“When you've got good writing, you can kind of give up all the research, in a way, and start just following the emotional integrity of the journey of your character.” WayGivingWritingKindCharacterJourneyEmotionalIntegrityGiving UpResearchFollowingGood Writing Author:Linus Roache
“When Kirk dies it was very emotional and very strange, in the moment and all the way through the process. I'd read it in the script and I'd always be struck by what I'd just done and what we were doing, and that this was my childhood hero and I was writing his death.” WayWritingDoneMomentsDiesProcessChildhoodEmotionalStrangeHeroScriptsKirk Author:Ronald D. Moore
“Sometimes when I'm writing I'll play Cole Porter, just because the rhythms and the lyrics are so perfect that it's like having a smart partner in the room. I have a huge collection of music that I listen to when I'm writing, and I also prepare a lot of music before I start directing. I put it all onto an iPod that I have with me on the set. It's helpful to the actors, because for an emotional scene, I'll play it and say, this is how it feels, to keep us in the zone.” FeelsWritingSometimesPlayActorsPerfectRoomsEmotionalHugeSceneMusic IsSmartPartnersRhythmCollectionsZoneHelpfulIpods Author:Nancy Meyers
“I am very aware of the fact that it's highly unlikely anyone will write an article via their mobile phone. I've done it, but it's painful. And it's not just about the small keyboard and the small screen - though that's awful. It's the emotional experience of writing an article.” WritingDoneFactsEmotionalPhonesPainfulScreensAwfulArticlesUnlikelyMobileKeyboardsMobile Phones Author:Sue Gardner
“What's actually amazing is that, after a couple of years of living with characters and writing characters and talking about characters, as we sit in the writers room and break episodes, it strikes you, every once in awhile, that you're talking about a character that's played by the same actor, who you've been talking about forever. We talk about a character dying, so you get emotional, and then you realize, "Oh, but wait, that actor is still on the show."” WritingYearsStillsCharacterShowsActorsWaitingRealizingRoomsTalkingBreakForeverDyingEmotionalCoupleStrikesEpisodes Author:Jeff Pinkner
“Our audience holds us to an incredibly high standard of continuity and emotional authenticity. We don't toy with that, but oftentimes we write stories, in order to spark debate. We're very determined to always give the answer. We don't want to leave a lot of things open to debate, at the end of the day.” WantGivingWritingEndsStoriesOrderAnswersAudienceEmotionalStandardsDeterminedDebateAuthenticityThe End Of The DaySparksToysContinuityHigh Standards Author:Jeff Pinkner
“Those of us who obsess over every word and action are constantly recalling past events, but that doesn't make them any less painful, nor does it help us transcend them. To write memoir, you have to not only recollect past events, you have to revisit them. You have to get back to the mental and emotional state you were in during those events.” WritingDoeStatesHelpingActionPastEventsEmotionalPainfulMemoirGet BackWords And ActionsPast Events Author:Janice Erlbaum
“I guess the most emotional part is when I have that moment when I end up writing something that I really, really love. So not only is there the emotional connection with the music that's being created, but there's also the magic of the fact that you're essentially creating something from nothing.” WritingEndsMomentsFactsMagicEmotionalCreatingConnectionsThat MomentCreating SomethingEmotional Connection Author:Moby
“I do experience something pretty commonly with every song; there's some moment where it clicks into its own life with its own emotional impact that I feel, and even though technically I'm the one writing the song, it's like watching a storm come in.” FeelsWritingMomentsSongEmotionalImpactStormClicks Author:Mirah
“I started dealing with my emotional pain by writing. I always had been a writer, but just not songs. Saying things on paper that I would never, ever say, and saying things to myself, admitting things to myself, about myself and my personality, just putting it on paper, is how I deal with emotional pain.” WritingPainSongDealsEmotionalPersonalityPaperEmotional PainAdmitting Author:India.Arie
“My own emotional health issues were bullying me during the time I was drafting that poem. It was a pressure I couldn't pin down or diagnose. And like many, if not most, writers I had the self-consciousness to recognize it made great conditions for writing.” IfsWritingMadeSelfMy OwnConsciousnessIssuesConditionsEmotionalPressureBullyingPinsSelf ConsciousnessEmotional HealthHealth IssuesDrafting Author:Gregory Pardlo
“Music is, by far, the best art. Nothing even comes close. It's so immediate and emotional. In writing, maybe ninety percent of it is the unconscious and ten percent is control. In music, I think it's probably more like ninety-nine percent the unconscious. It's just a beautiful thing happening through you. And so, too, is writing a great story.” ThinkingWritingArtStoriesBeautifulEmotionalTenMusic IsHappeningsPercentThings HappenNineUnconsciousBeautiful ThingsNinetyNinety NineBest Art Author:T.C. Boyle
“I can be really silly when I'm not actually writing silliness, and I have to rein that in. Pynchon, in my opinion, sometimes tells elaborate shaggy dog stories just to work up to a pun or punch line. My challenge is to use humor and wordplay to reinforce the emotional core of the novel.” WritingI CanSometimesStoriesUseChallengesLinesOpinionNovelDogEmotionalCoreSillyReinsPunWordplaySilliness Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff
“For me, writing music is a way of processing the world. It's not a concrete thing, as in, "This piece is about giraffes." It's much more of an emotional sort of thing. I want people to find something out about themselves through my music, something that was inaccessible before, something that they were suppressing, something that they couldn't really confront.” PeopleWorldWayWantWritingPiecesEmotionalMusic IsConcreteProcessingWriting MusicInaccessibleSuppressingGiraffe Author:Missy Mazzoli
“I've been told by people who write historical novels that you just sort of write the emotional truth first, the story at the core, and then you go back and research it at the end.” PeopleWritingFirstsEndsStoriesNovelEmotionalResearchHistoricalCoreHistorical Novels Author:Jami Attenberg
“I am curious to see what books will emerge from all this writing online that's the result of those who grew up pouring their feelings out on Livejournal or Tumblr - excessive, sometimes automatic, sometimes enraged, emotional, while also quite intellectual - or if formal books will emerge at all, if that's not the point of these unmediated raw spaces. I'm excited by the possibility.” IfsWritingBookSometimesFeelingsSpaceResultsPossibilityEmotionalGrewGrew UpIntellectualExcitedCuriousOnlineFormalPouring Author:Kate Zambreno
“I write songs to handle emotional pain. I guess what they say is true: with every heartache comes a great song. I also pray and have great friends.” WritingPainSongEmotionalPrayingHandleHeartacheEmotional PainGreat Friend Author:Matt Sorum
“In order to handle my emotional pain I talk to friends about it, I write, I breathe, and most of all, I put it in perspective.” WritingPainOrderEmotionalPerspectiveBreatheHandleEmotional Pain Author:Lisa Loeb
“Sometimes it's binge eating as a method to handle emotional pain. I'll also write very sporadically - music, lyrics - to identify the problem. There are a few cathartic processes I've alternated randomly. There's no default. Each emotional experience elicits a different, possibly new response.” WritingDifferentSometimesProblemPainProcessEmotionalEatingMethodResponseHandleEmotional PainDefaultBingeCatharticBinge Eating Author:Brendan Dooling
“I deal with emotional pain through therapy, writing, therapy in music. I think emotional pain is best dealt with when you use art to express it.” ThinkingWritingArtUsePainDealsEmotionalTherapyEmotional Pain Author:Naturi Naughton
“I no longer protect myself from the world I grew up in. Rather, today I try to protect the feelings I have for that world, the emotional space where my desire to write first took hold, and still grows.” WorldWritingTryingFirstsStillsFeelingsTodayDesireGrowsSpaceEmotionalGrewProtectGrew Up Author:Elena Ferrante
“Every year I used to write a musical inspired by John Waters, and I would get all my friends together and put on this perverse, emotional, tragic musical.” WritingYearsTogetherUsedWaterEmotionalMy FriendsInspiredMusicalTragic Author:Antony Hegarty
“One, something emotional has to be at stake. There has to be something important for me that I'm writing about. And then two, I have to have a formal idea. Something has to be being worked out in poetry.” WritingTwoImportantIdeasEmotionalStakesFormal Author:Edward Hirsch
“I can write a song in the back of the bus, where I am right now, or in my living room, and I can perform it that night and have an instant reciprocal exchange - an emotional, impactful exchange - and it's a less technical medium. It's a pure expression from my soul to other souls.” WritingI CanSoulNightSongRoomsEmotionalExpressionRight NowPureMediumsMy SoulInstantBusLiving RoomReciprocal Author:Juliette Lewis
“In terms of writing, I think something happens to you, and you think, "Oh I'm going to write about that. That's an emotional event." But obviously, if you keep going, and it's something you do with regularity, you've got to find other ways to write.” IfsThinkingWayWritingHappensTermEventsEmotionalThings HappenKeep GoingRegularity Author:David Gray
“Characters exist in a flat line until we challenge them - sometimes they challenge themselves, sometimes they're challenged by other people, by nature, by robots, or by fungal infections in and around one's nether-country. Stories need conflict across the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual spectra. Accidents, betrayals, cataclysm, desperation, excess - these are the letters in the alphabet of conflict.” PeopleNeedsWritingCountrySometimesCharacterStoriesSpiritualChallengesLinesEmotionalConflictIntellectualLettersBetrayalAccidentsFlatsExcessDesperationRobotsAlphabetInfection Author:Chuck Wendig
“It's often hard to determine, especially in early drafts, whether or not a story has a bona fide complication. Remember this: A complication must either illuminate, thwart, or alter what the character wants. A good complication puts emotional pressure on a character, promoting that character not only to act, but to act with purpose.If the circumstance does none of these things, then it's not a complication at all - it's a situation. This situation, or setup, might be interesting or even astonishing, but it gives the story no point of departure.” IfsWantGivingWritingDoeHardCharacterStoriesMightRememberPurposeInterestingSituationEmotionalCircumstancesPressureDeterminePromotingAstonishingNo PointDepartureComplicationSetups Author:Monica Wood
“I've had to try and find a way over the years of writing narratively that doesn't really require you to sit down and work out what the story's about. You're brought into a sort of sequence of images that have that emotional resonance, but it's kind of irrelevant what the actual story is. It's taken me maybe 13 albums or something to work that out.” WayWritingTryingYearsKindStoriesTakenEmotionalDown AndAlbumsWork OutIrrelevantSequenceResonance Author:Nick Cave
“When it comes down to the song writing, I'm just very slow - very slow. Because the songs are about my life, so I'm doing emotional work on myself. As I'm writing these songs, I have to learn these lessons and dig real deep into my heart to write this stuff.” WritingHeartRealSongStuffEmotionalMy HeartLessonsReal Deep Author:India.Arie
“What does seem to be a constant is that I write more emotional stories the older I get. I think a lot of that has to do with growing up in a patriarchal structure where unemotional intellect (male) is taken more seriously than delving into emotions (female), and gradually freeing myself from those expectations.” ThinkingWritingDoeStoriesSeemsEmotionGrowing UpTakenGrowingEmotionalExpectationsFemaleStructureConstantMalesIntellectDelvingUnemotional Author:Karin Tidbeck
“There was one sequence of days [making Lincoln in the Bardo] when I had halfway decided to use the historical nuggets, but I wasn't quite sure it would work. I'd be in my room for six or seven hours, cutting up bits of paper with quotes and arranging them on the floor, with this little voice in my head saying, "Hey, this isn't writing!" But at the end of that day, I felt that the resulting section was doing important emotional work” WritingLittlesImportantEndsUseFeltBitsVoiceHoursRoomsCuttingEmotionalPaperSixDecidedHistoricalSevenHeySectionsSequenceHalfwayArrangingNuggetsVoices In My Head Author:George Saunders
“My music is very raw, it's emotional, and it's honest. I do my best to tell a story whenever I write music because I want to paint the most vivid picture that tells a story whether a person is falling in love for the first time or going through a painful heartbreak.” WantWritingFirstsPersonsStoriesFallHonestEmotionalMusic IsFirst TimePaintFalling In LovePainfulVivid Author:Adrian Marcel
“If I write a paragraph and I don't get a certain lift from it, if I don't feel connected to it emotionally, then it's dead to me. When I'm reading other fiction writers, if I don't get any emotional investment from the writer, if it's just intellectual or clever - you know, most writing that passes as deep is just clever - I don't feel any connection.” IfsKnowsFeelsWritingCertainReadingFictionEmotionalIntellectualConnectionsInvestmentConnectedCleverLiftsParagraphFiction WritersEmotional Investment Author:Oscar Hijuelos
“Writing fiction lets you be a little more emotional and unguarded, a little freer. Writing fictional characters is also really different from writing about real people. In nonfiction, you can only say so much about the people you interact with. After all, they're actual people, their version of their story trumps yours. In a novel, you can build a character, using certain parts or impressions of someone you know, and guessing or inventing others, without having to worry that your guesses or memories or inventions are wrong.” PeopleWritingDifferentRealCharacterMemoriesWorryNovelEmotionalInventionImpressionFictional Character Author:Elif Batuman
“I am a very emotional person. I basically think and feel in emotion, so writing is much easier for me than communicating by voice or by talking to somebody just because I can really get into the emotion more succinctly with writing. So I guess that's what makes me a better writer than speaker.” ThinkingWritingEmotionEmotionalCommunicateSpeakers Author:Kelly Oxford
“I always listen to music when I write! I basically make a playlist for every essay; sometimes it's just one song, or three songs, over and over and over. I sort of find the emotional pitch of the piece, and then match music to it, and then the music becomes a shortcut to the feeling, so I can enter it and work anywhere: on planes, cafes, at work, the train.” WritingSometimesFeelingsSongEmotionalMusic IsTrainEssaysListening To Music Author:Melissa Febos
“As a director you have to be at 30,000 ft objectively looking at everything, wondering if you're making the right objective, emotional, story, character choices. As the writer, while you're asking all of those same questions, you're also forced by the nature of what writing is to be looking at everything under a microscope. That's the difference between the two jobs.” WritingCharacterChoicesWonderEmotional Author:Alex Kurtzman
“It was a natural progression for me to write about Millenials transitioning into management but I found myself getting emotional as I wrote. I really do want to repay them for all they have given me. What better way than to help them transition to the next level of their career!” WritingHelpingNaturalEmotionalManagementProgression Author:Chip Espinoza
“I have always struggled with expressing emotion, I used to think I was a very hard person but music has shown me I'm a big softy! Writing songs to me really is like writing a diary, it's very private and very personal. My most emotional songs have been written alone in a locked room, I'm able to express myself there.” ThinkingWritingSongEmotionEmotional Author:Roxanne Emery
“A lot of readers ask me, "Do you ever get emotional while writing the book?" or "Did you cry when you killed this character?" And the truth is, no, I didn't. That's not really the way I approach it. I don't get emotional while writing, but then there are plenty of other authors who do.” WritingBookCharacterCryEmotionalTruth IsPlentyAsk Me Author:Victoria Aveyard
“I think something that happens when you grow a bit older is you become slightly less overly emotional. Obviously when you're young or a more progressed teenager, you're overly emotional, so that side of me calmed down. I wanted to write more about stories, and other things that I'd observed and seen or done.” ThinkingWritingDoneEmotionalTeenager Author:Elly Jackson
“I didn't really care about money. I really wanted to follow my bliss. I really wanted to do the things that would make my life satisfying, in the fullest sense, and I was never thinking about money when I made those decisions. And I certainly didn't want my life to be driven by money. I'd seen my father's' life driven that way, and, although again, in retrospect, I understand fully why he did that, I didn't wanna live looking for that kind of financial reward. I wanted to live with the emotional, psychological, and even moral reward of doing the kind of work I do, which is, y'know, writing.” ThinkingWritingKindCareDecisionMoralEmotionalFinancialDrivenPsychologicalBliss Author:Neal Gabler
“I left things out - my motivations, my history, my emotional responses - because I am not good at understanding them or writing about them. I tried and it was generally boring and always unconvincing. Most importantly I wanted to try to place Afghans and Afghanistan in the foreground rather than my own character.” WritingTryingCharacterMotivationUnderstandingEmotionalResponseBoringAfghanistan Author:Rory Stewart
“I had brief glimpses of emotional catharsis while writing. I remember reading something Philip Roth wrote about how he writes every single day, but it's almost as if he has amnesia every morning - he has almost zero confidence that anything will come but he just sits down and plugs away. And at the end of the day it feels like a miracle: "How did I do that?" I had a similar experience where it was just about putting in the hours and being present.” WritingRememberReadingHoursMorningEmotionalMiracleEvery MorningAmnesiaPhilip Author:Annie E. Clark
“Unless you're very boring, I think most people who've lived long enough have something in their past which will never go away. As a writer, my interest has become in writing about much more emotional, personal topics. I'm trying to reach into subjects I have never written about before.” PeopleThinkingWritingTryingLongEnoughPastInterestEmotionalBoringGoing Away Author:John Boyne
“I think all those years that I spent as a nurse, from the age of seventeen, just allowed me an insight into human emotion at those times of life when it's so important. And to see and witness those times of grief and love and loss and all those things was such a huge privilege, both in my own personal life, but it also, I think, spills over into my writing. I think the one thing that most novelists have is some degree of emotional intelligence, and if you don't have that, then perhaps you might struggle to be a novelist, because that has to come out somewhere.” ThinkingWritingImportantAgeLossGriefEmotionStruggleEmotionalInsightWitnessNursePersonal LifeLove And Loss Author:Christie Watson
“I'm really happy that people are starting to hear my band, and we are so happy to be conduits for all this other happiness, and this emotional response. So, I can't be like, "that doesn't matter to me, I'm an artist, I exist apart from that!" But on the other hand, if you buy into that too much, you're setting yourself up... if I start thinking, "well, people at the show really liked one song, maybe I should write more songs like that," then I'm in trouble.” PeopleThinkingWritingArtistSongTroubleEmotionalResponseReally Happy Author:Carey Mercer
“Entering into writing a poem is an emotional endeavor for me as well as a spiritual and creative one. Having to write those poems for the inauguration, I started asking deeper questions about my cultural identity, and my connection to America.” WritingSpiritualCreativeIdentityEmotionalInauguration Author:Richard Blanco
“Writing the songs is always emotional and most of the vocals on there are the first three takes from the demos, because they give so much more. You're in that moment, so it speaks for itself.” GivingWritingMomentsSongSpeakEmotional Author:Tove Lo