Quotes by Writing Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon. Ann Patchett writingteajobs The idea I pursue is the one that keeps coming back to me. The characters I think about as I'm falling asleep at night or when I'm driving to the grocery store are the one's I wind up writing about. Ann Patchett writingcharacterfall My writing process has changed because it's harder to find uninterrupted time. Ann Patchett changedprocesswriting Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words. Ann Patchett disappointmentheartwriting Do you want to do this thing? Sit down and do it. Are you not writing? Keep sitting there. Does it not feel right? Keep sitting there. Think of yourself as a monk walking the path to enlightenment. Think of yourself as a high school senior wanting to be a neurosurgeon. Is it possible? Yes. Is there some shortcut? Not one I've found. Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world. Ann Patchett seniorwritingschool If a person has never given writing a try, they assume that a brilliant idea is hard to come by. But really, even if it takes some digging, ideas are out there. Just open your eyes and look at the world. Writing the ideas down, it turns out, is the real trick. Ann Patchett eyerealwriting Why is it that we understand playing the cello will require work, but we attribute writing to the magic of inspiration? Ann Patchett magicinspirationwriting I used to do everything to keep a wall up around myself and keep my life quiet so that I could write. Ann Patchett wallwritingquiet I will write my way into another life. Ann Patchett another-lifewritingway You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend. You can't be a jerk in order to be a good writer. You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person. You are the same person in every aspect of your life, and you have to be a responsible person in every aspect of your life. Ann Patchett politicalhusbandwriting Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something. Ann Patchett disciplinewritingart I was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was given the time and space to work, but someone who wrote as a course of life. Maybe writing wouldn't have any rewards. Maybe the salvation I would gain through work would only be emotional and intellectual. Wouldn't that be enough, to be a waitress who found an hour or two hidden in every day to write? Ann Patchett emotionalwritingtwo People always say, "Can writing be taught?" I always think, I can teach you how to write a better sentence, how to do dialogue, how to do character, but I can't teach you how to be a decent person, and I can't teach you how to have something to say. Ann Patchett writingcharacterthinking Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected. Ann Patchett dotscoming-backwriting Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world. Ann Patchett awfulwritingworld If you want to write and can't figure out how to do it, try this: Pick an amount of time to sit at your desk every day. Start with twenty minutes, say, and work up as quickly as possible to as much time as you can spare. Do you really want to write? Sit for two hours a day. Ann Patchett writingtryingtwo I made a startling discovery. Time spent writing = output of work. Amazing. Ann Patchett madewritingdiscovery I think of Nashville as a very natural place. We're easy going, we are ourselves. There isn't a lot of preening or trying to impress. So it's an easy place to just be and that is a good state from which to write. Ann Patchett nashvillewritingthinking I can write for any magazine now, in any voice. I can do it in two hours, I could do it in my sleep, it's like writing a grocery list. Ann Patchett sleepwritingtwo Sometimes if there's a book you really want to read, you have to write it yourself. Ann Patchett wantwritingbook«7273747576777879808182»
