There are a lot more female writers wanting to direct their own material and hopefully will be given the opportunity.
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
Nothing spooky or terrible happened on set, but we were told to say it had. We were giving a press conference and the writers were going on about these terrible things that supposedly happened while we were filming.
I always feel freelance writers are leading a heroic life. I think that is the real writer's life. On the other hand, it's good to have another job. It gives you something to do.
Writers are frequently asked why they wrote their first book. A more interesting answer might come from asking them why they wrote their second one.
What I always meant by that was that I do believe that a lot of directors, and writers, and sometimes producers just lose their edge because they haven't seen anybody or talked to anybody or been with anybody who isn't a kind of replica of themselves for a long period of time.
Most writers flinch at the thought of being completely honest about themselves. So absolute honesty is what marks the true modern.
How often have I met and disliked writers whose books I love; and conversely, hated the books and then wound up liking the writer? Too often.
I love thriller writers. My favourites are Harlan Coban, Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Kathy Reichs and Ed McBain.
When you're young, you keep reading new writers and you keep changing your mind about how you ought to sound.
Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.
Writers in Britain aren't really celebrities. You become kind of a darling of a small set.
All the writers on our show went in and got in the bed and took a picture in Cher's bed, even though she was never in it.
Unlike the majority of the writers of his age, La Rochefoucauld was an aristocrat; and this fact gives a peculiar tone to his work.
I think the special thing about Python is that it's a writers' commune. The writers are in charge. The writers decide what the material is.
Good writers are of necessity rare.
I enjoy a special collegiality among other writers in the thriller community. They call me 'Canada's scariest writer,' and I love that.
Creative writing lessons can be very useful, just like music lessons can be useful. To say, as Hanif Kureishi did, that 99.9% of students are talentless is cruel and wrong. I believe that certain writers like to believe they arrived into the world with special, unteachable powers because it is good for the ego.
With network shows, writers can be so protective of every syllable.
When I was in graduate school, I had a teacher who said to me, 'Women writers should marry somebody who thinks writing is cute. Because if they really realised what writing was, they would run a mile.'
Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned in it.
Writers want to be reread. They want to think that their words don't just flash by but deserve some reflection.
TV is the place that writers want to be.
Our job as writers is to listen, to come home to the four corners of the earth.
I come from a family of writers. My mom had been a writer, nonfiction books, and her mother was a playwright in the 1930s and '40s. And my twin brother, Alexi, is a writer on 'The Following.'
I think the writers of 'Community' have moved on from my character. I'm pretty sure. I would love to go back on. I had a really good time and I really liked that character, but I don't think it's going to happen.
Recipe writers hate to write about heat. They despise it. Because there aren't proper words for communicating what should be done with it.
I think it's a question which particularly arises over women writers: whether it's better to have a happy life or a good supply of tragic plots.
Of all the writers I have read, Vladimir Nabokov has made the biggest impression on me because he, despite living through the 1917 February Revolution, forced exile amidst the anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, the two World Wars and quite a lot of controversy, was an author who never gave up.
We don't want to create a literary ghetto in which black writers are only allowed to write black characters and women writers are put on 'girl books.'
Being an actor, we're so dependent on the writers.
It's like when you get sick of your own cooking: I occasionally wish I could write something that didn't come out sounding like me. All writers must experience that.
I met a bunch of comic-book writers at the Metropolis convention and there was such an interesting discussion about the story of 'Supergirl' and trying to get it right. It can be a challenge, because you don't want it to be the same as the Superman story.
I think writers are very anxious.
The way that I sort of direct the writers is, let's do the best story we can. Let's not worry about production issues. 'How much will that cost? How are we going to shoot that?' Let's not set up those constraints on the writing. I don't think it helps the project to work like that.
Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.
