There are writers, and I know some of them, who are very disciplined. Who write, like, four pages a day, every day. And it doesn't matter if their dog got run over by a car that day, or they won the Irish sweepstakes. I'm not one of those writers.
I did what most writers do when something happens that's overwhelming, fascinating, moving, all of that. I didn't know what else to do about it except write about it.
It's fun and super exciting to see how other people work, how other people write music, and how other people put things together. To me, it's an endless learning process, and I love doing it because everybody works so completely differently.
I'm just gonna write a record for my kid, and if people hate it, it doesn't matter.
I will write another book if I feel like it.
Music inspires me and puts me in the right mood, but to actually listen to it when I write - I find it gets in the way.
I think that 'The Outsiders' was meant to be written, and I was just picked to write it.
I used to want to be a children's writer, because I would have all these great ideas when I was little, and I'd write them and draw them, and turn them into class.
When I'm working on a novel, I generally do write every day, but in between those marathons, I take breaks. My brain needs time to recharge.
You shouldn't even be writing this story if you haven't heard me play live. You can't write with the passion you receive until you see a Dick Dale concert.
When me and my author friends who write about other difficult subject matter... when you hear from teens daily saying, 'Your book helped me or made me understand a friend better, what somebody else is going through,' you see the positive things.
When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about.
The way to write really good songs is to write about the things that happen in your life and where you are in the moment, and writing about stuff that happens in your 30s is not the sexiest song subject.
When I am seriously composing, sometimes a phrase will come into my head, a catch phrase. When I was writing pop songs for a few years, as a career, separate from my folksinging career, I used to write songs for pop singers.
I think the best advice I give is to try not to write. Try not to overwrite, try not to make it sound too good. Just use your own voice. Use your own style of putting it down.
Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.
There is this assumption that much of what I write is about my life, and that simply is not true.
I write because I have an innate need to. I write because I can't do normal work. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake of real life only by changing it.
The neatest thing about television is that they write for you... They find out what you can do, what you do best, how it works, and how they can use you.
Focus in on the genre you want to write, and read books in that genre. A LOT of books by a variety of authors. And read with questions in your mind.
I understand the visual media very well, as I used to write comic books for Walt Disney, and I've written a graphic novel.
I want to write, I want to sing. I want to do the same thing for others, have my music, hopefully do that for others one day, not realizing what I sort of had to climb. I had an idea a little bit, but I think that I underestimated the whole thing.
I tell people this: It's hard to write about walking in the park, but it's easy to write about a breakup.
When people ask what I write about, that's what I tell them: 'The drama of human relationships.' I'm not even close to running out of material.
Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think about what you shall write.
I didn't connect with the kids. I was in the studio. I never saw the kids. I hoped they liked it, of course. And then I'd go write some more. And then I'd go buy me a home. Very American.
I think what I would really most like to write about is palm trees and bougainvillea and hummingbirds. I would like to go into the desert and write about salamanders and the Grand Canyon, but history keeps rupturing my experience because politics are everywhere.
Some of the young kids look for one hit to be a star; that what they're known for the rest of their life... I never wanted to be known as one thing; that is the reason I do classical theater, write, direct and the blessings God has given me... I want to share.
I love pop music, but at the same time, I'm seeking to write whatever I'm organically inclined to.
Poets write the words you have heard before but in a new sequence.
I'm not really an autobiographical writer, though I use lots of stuff from my life to make my stories seem real. But when I actually write about myself, I get very confused.
Embarrassingly enough, I often can't remember how I came to write something.
I play the piano and write music.
I find screenplays easy to write, my novels being very visual. You see what people look like. The physical action is described.
I had a financial page to write in the Mail on Sunday where I'd give tips on shares. I worked there for two and a half years. Nothing compares to the burst of energy felt on a newsroom floor when a big story breaks.
If you write in category, you write knowing there's a framework, there are reader expectations.
