Who knows whether in retirement I shall be tempted to the last infirmity of mundane minds, which is to write a book.
It's quite difficult to write about female friendship without it seeming to be a very niche subject. It's a difficult balance.
I would rather write for the instruction, or even the amusement of the poor than for the amusement of the rich.
Although the odds are you're not gonna get the acting job you go out for, it's easier to successfully audition than it is to sit down for a few months and write a movie that's going to actually sell.
I'm not an angry person. When I write, the lawyer in me tries to make it as easy to read as possible.
I know some writers can write on the road, but I'm not one of them.
I naively thought I would quit television writing, move up to Seattle, my novel would come out, and then I'd have a novel writing career, and so I found myself really stuck in this very poisonous self-pitying state and felt like I'd never write again. And I blamed Seattle for that.
I get like a melody that comes up and I try to write it down or record it. Hum it into a tape recorder or write it down on some manuscript paper. It could happen at any time, on the road or off the road, but mostly, you know, at home.
We wanted to write the first prequels as a story that anyone could pick up.
It is not about writing those hits again. I am sure I could write them, but it is about the sensibilities.
If you try to write 1,000 words a day, as I do, after 100 days you'll look up and have a book. It may be a mess, and you may have to revise it 50 times, but you can't revise it if you haven't written it.
We're not on a desperate mission to write chart compatible stuff.
I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again - as I always am when I write.
Half a century ago, the amazing courage of Rosa Parks, the visionary leadership of Martin Luther King, and the inspirational actions of the civil rights movement led politicians to write equality into the law and make real the promise of America for all her citizens.
I wasn't political enough to write articles about myself or go to cocktail parties, meaning that not only has my art been pirated and my intellectual property rights stolen, but my work has been misrepresented.
I thought a dignified thing to do would be to live in the country by the time I'm 50 and write books.
But I always need to identify with a character to write about him or her - and by 'identify,' I mean see the world through that person's eyes and have a strong sense of the inner logic of their acts and decisions, wacky or wrongheaded though they might be. In that sense, I think there's some of me in all of them.
I'd like to start writing scripts. I think I'd probably be inclined to write a very dark comedy or a tragic romance. As a kid, I used to write really dark stuff.
I still think like a critic, and I still analyze films like a critic. However, it's not possible to write criticism if you're making films.
I write from the same place I parent, and since becoming a single parent, I have found it difficult, if not impossible, to write anything of length.
She could only write with him at night and she was wasting her days just sitting around. So he thought I could write with her during the day. And that was Carole King.
The people who write official histories for the Army believe that a generation needs to pass before you can tackle the official history. It's useful to have some distance. Sources become available. Passions cool. It allows an opportunity to make some real assessments and judgments about personalities and characters.
Writing is a solitary experience. I'm extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It's so intimate, I can't even share it with my wife.
I think I'm always subconsciously trying to write the ideal school play. Lots of parts for everybody, great parts for women - don't forget, more girls try out than boys in the school play; everyone gets to be in the school play.
Normally I start with a plot, and write a synopsis, and the ideas come from the construction.
A lot of journalists are talented enough to write a mystery novel, and I would say that most of the top-end mystery writers actually started out as reporters. But there is more to it than just the writing; there's a learning process, and most journalists aren't willing to do it.
To write a story, I think you really have to open yourself up to the world.
I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.
I love the song 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.
I can't write a book like 'Lamb' or 'Fool' every year. It just takes too much research and craft.
Over the years, my students influenced me greatly, and I've learned many lessons from them. I have an immense amount of respect for them, and I think that respect for your audience is the foremost requirement for anyone who wants to write.
When I write down my thoughts, they do not escape me. This action makes me remember my strength which I forget at all times. I educate myself proportionately to my captured thought. I aim only to distinguish the contradiction between my mind and nothingness.
The characters I write about are very internal.
The abortion cases produced an enormous amount of mail to my chambers, vastly more than to the other chambers, I am sure. I sometimes thought there wasn't a woman in the United States who didn't write me a letter on one side or the other of that issue.
Sure, I have advice for people starting to write. Don't. I don't need the competition.
He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.
