“The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too - eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko's, Fatburger, Subway - I was a sandwich artist - and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.” PeopleWritingYearsFirstsJobsArtistSongHalfFourClaimsStudiosSandwichesElevenWriting SongsSubwayHalf A YearProcessors Author:Frank Ocean
“I love writing in longhand. Writing in longhand, I think, is a marvelous thing to do for a writer these days. If you have a notebook and a nice pen you can go off somewhere, you can write that's solar powered. You can drop it or get it wet and pretty much all of your work will continue to be there. If you suddenly decide to look up a word or check a reference you will not look up four hours later, blinking, finding yourself somehow in the middle of an Ebay auction you never had any plans to be part of.” IfsThinkingWritingLooksHoursFourNicePlansMiddleFindingsChecksThese DaysThings To DoLook UpFinding YourselfPensWetMarvelousNotebookAuctionsEbayMarvelous Things Author:Neil Gaiman
“It's hard for children's authors to be accepted when they try to write adult books. J.K. Rowling is the exception because people are so eager to read anything by her, but it took Judy Blume three or four tries before she had a success.” PeopleWritingTryingChildrenBookHardThreeFourAdultsAcceptedException Author:R. L. Stine
“I used to be a pre-industrial writer: thousands of words in a spurt and then a few days off. But as I get older, I've switched to a mode best described as 'slow and steady wins the race.' Basically, I write during the same four hours every day, after breakfast and the all-important coffee, generally in the same room and wearing the same pajamas.” WritingImportantUsedWinningHoursRoomsRaceFourCoffeeUsed To BeBreakfastSteadyDays OffPajamasSlow And Steady Author:Scott Westerfeld
“When the babies were very young, I found it difficult to write. I told myself each time that it would be different, I was used to it now, but with every child, for the first four months, I would accomplish nothing.” WritingFirstsChildrenDifferentWould BeYoungUsedFoundDifficultFourBabyMonthsAccomplishAccomplish Nothing Author:Ayelet Waldman
“But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.” KnowsWritingLongBookEnoughThreeFourNew Directions Author:Daniel Woodrell
“I write four books a year. I'm very fortunate that I write quickly; around 3,500 words a day. Being strict about delineating my writing time and personal life, as well as keeping distractions at bay, is the only way I can accomplish this.” WayWritingYearsWellsI CanBookFourAccomplishFortunateDistractionStrictPersonal Life Author:Alexander McCall Smith
“The funny thing about me is I'm kind of schizophrenic, because after four or five nights in a row of going out to parties, I just have to be alone. I hate people and feel like they're keeping me from what I really want to do, like write a fabulous novel, which I probably never will.” PeopleWantFeelsWritingKindNightHatePartyNovelFiveFourI HateGoing OutFabulousFunny ThingsHate PeopleSchizophrenicI Hate People Author:Bob Colacello
“The four great motives for writing prose are sheer egoism, esthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose.” WritingPoliticalPurposeFourHistoricalEnthusiasmImpulseMotiveProseSheerEgoism Author:George Orwell
“Of every four words I write, I strike out three.” WritingThreeFourStrikesEditing Author:Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
“I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I finished my third in 1970.” IfsWritingYearsLongEnoughSeemsFourThirdsFinishedOpera Author:Virgil Thomson
“everyone who is human has something to express. Try not expressing yourself for twenty-four hours and see what happens. You will nearly burst. You will want to write a long letter, or draw a picture, or sing, or make a dress or a garden.” WantWritingTryingHumansLongHappensHumanityHoursFourCommunicationDrawsGardenLettersTwentiesDressesExpress Yourself Book:If You Want to Write Source: If You Want to Write
“Over the next four days, I want you to write about your deepest emotions and thoughts about the most upsetting experience in your life. Really let go and explore your feelings and thoughts about it. In your writing, you might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents, people you have loved or love now or even your career. How is this experience related to who you would like to become, who you have been in the past, or who you are now?.” PeopleWantWritingHas BeensFeelingsMightPastNextParentEmotionCareersFourChildhoodLetting GoWho You AreUpsetYour ChildrenTiesRelatedOur RelationshipI Want You Author:James W. Pennebaker
“[Her] love and tenderness ... gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my dead at last and write this play-write it with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrones.” LoveWritingPlayLastsFacesUnderstandingFourPityTendernessRomantic LoveSweet LoveFaith In Love Author:Eugene O'Neill
“I like things to be orderly. For seven years I ate at Bob's Big Boy. I would go at 2:30, after the lunch rush. I ate a chocolate shake and four, five, six, seven cups of coffee-with lots of sugar. And there's lots of sugar in that chocolate shake. It's a thick shake. In a silver goblet. I would get a rush from all this sugar, and I would get so many ideas! I would write them on these napkins. It was like I had a desk with paper. All I had to do was remember to bring my pen, but a waitress would give me one if I remembered to return it at the end of my stay. I got a lot of ideas at Bob's.” IfsGivingWritingYearsIdeasEndsBigsRememberBoysFiveFourReturnPaperSixGive MeSevenCoffeeCupsRememberedShakesSilverChocolatePensLunchSugarThickBobDesksSeven YearsOrderlyCoffee CupWaitressNapkins Author:David
“I failed to get into drama school, and my best friend told me I should do stand-up instead. I was always doing gags and voices, so he booked a gig for me without telling me. I only had four days to write it. I did a seven-minute set; the first four minutes were terrible, but the last two were amazing.” ShouldWritingFirstsTwoSchoolLastsVoiceFourMinutesTerribleDramaSevenMy Best FriendGigsGags Author:Marcus Brigstocke
“Writing is 90% procrastination. It is a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write.” WritingMatterMorningFourProcrastinationWriter's BlockInfomercials Author:Paul Rudnick
“My best time to write is right after coffee and breakfast - four eggs because, full disclosure: I'm really a komodo dragon - and that's because then I'm energized but not so awake that the critical voice clicks on, the voice that sometimes says, "Don't write that," or "Man, that sentence is terrible - you should give up and go pet the cats."” MenGivingShouldWritingSometimesVoiceFourTerribleGiving UpCatCriticalSentencesCoffeeAwakePetDragonsEggsBreakfastClicksBest TimesDisclosure Author:Jeff VanderMeer
“My dad once told me: no matter what anyone says or writes, really, none of those people have to hit your four- foot putt.You have to go do it yourself.” PeopleWritingMatterFourFeetDadNo Matter WhatMy DadDo It Yourself Author:Tiger Woods