Stephen Jay Gould Quotes

I started writing because I had a need inside of me to create something that was not there

At this point in my life, I'm probably not gonna be able to stop writing because it's gonna help me be able to do what I need to do.

I think writing would have happened to me anyway, somehow. Differently, but it still would have happened.

I wouldn't presume to know something, but I have lots to learn and that's what I attempt to do through my work.

I never dreamed of being an actor, but I'm beginning to love it more and more because I like challenging myself. When I feel like I'm not learning or having fun anymore, then I'll stop.

Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong. It is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously.

In matters like writing and painting, a man does what he has to do - if he has to write, why then, he writes; and if he doesn't feel the urgent need of writing, there are dozens of professions in which it is easier to earn a comfortable living.

It's what I wanted to do with my life. Not necessarily just direct Jim Carrey movies, but to direct and act and write and create and along the way discover what it is that I'm about.

You don't write because someone sets assignments! You write because you need to write, or because you hope someone will listen or because writing will mend something broken inside you or bring something back to life.

Writing does not exclude the full life; it demands it.

Writing has made me a better man. It has put me in contact with those fleeting moments which prove the existence.

People should practice an art in order to make their souls grow and not to make money or become famous. Paint a picture. Write.

My advice to women who habitually gravitate toward musicians is that they learn how to play an instrument and start making music themselves. Not only will they see that it's not that hard, but sometimes I think women just want to be the very thing they think they want to sleep with. Because if you're bright enough--no offense, Tawny Kitaen--sleeping with a musician probably won't be enough for you to feel good about yourself. Even if he writes you a song for your birthday. Don't you know that a musician who writes a song for you is like a baker you're dating making you a cake? Aim higher.

Why do I write? I guess that's been asked of every writer. I don't know. It isn't any massive compulsion.

So I write mainly for the fun of it, the hell of it, the duty of it. I enjoy writing and will probably be a scribbler on my dying day, sprawled on some stony trail halfway between two dry waterholes.

I do eventually want to get back into performing, but right now it's more fun for me to dance for myself.

If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book.

For me, making music is a continuous learning experience, and I think that it feeds itself.

Writing was my route to creative expression, and I needed to write about the things that interested me.

It really is individual for everyone, but for me, theater is where I learn and grow, and that is always a good thing.

I'm always trying to find brain food and indulge in knowledge that's gonna be useful.

I want to get within myself and write. I really, really want to write.

I just wanted to write something about running, but I realized that to write about my running is to write about my writing. It's a parallel thing in me.

I like writing, but I write for self-improvement more than I do for money.

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake.