Alex Flinn Quotes

Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer.

All experience helps when you write.

There's a lot of young authors out there, and people do seem to forget: in order to write well, you do need to have some experience.

Everyone said, 'Well, you're very old for a first novel,' and I said, 'How do you write when you haven't lived? How do you write when you have no experience? How do you write straight out of university?'

I have learned many things in the 30 years that I have been writing.

Writing is not getting any easier or harder. I think I know what I want more, I know what I'm looking for.

Ultimately, you've got to have something to say, so a writer should continue learning things throughout life. But I don't think education makes one a writer.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

When I started to write, I realised that you need a bit of both: the overall context as well as the individual's experience.

I tell my writing students that everything is material; just pay attention.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

I started writing when I was about 20, 21 maybe.

I'm always looking at ways of shaking up the writing experience because I think it helps.

A lot of the time writers are just sponges... for what's around them, and so books are helpful for focusing your mind and literally putting it into words.

One thing I always did in my career was writing. I always was writing. I was trying to create things. For myself, for other people.

I tend to be a subscriber to the idea that you have everything you need by the time you're 12 years old to do interesting writing for most of the rest of your life - certainly by the time you're 18.

It seems to me in the past it's been a good thing, as a writer, to have experiences I hadn't expected.

I guess you could say I've been writing all my life.

I am not much of a researcher as a novelist; I write mainly from experience.

You can't sit down and decide what you want to write about.

My writing process is a mix of research, personal experiences, washing the dishes, raising kids while thinking - then writing.

Now the writing in the head, I definitely do every day, thinking about how I want to phrase something or how I'd like to rephrase something I've already written.

I have come to understand and appreciate writers much more recently since I started working on a book last fall. Before that, I thought golf writers got up every morning, played a round of golf, had lunch, showed up for our last three holes and then went to dinner.

I don't want to go out hunting for dismal topics to write about.

I know you're supposed to hide your influences, but I suppose I see writing as riffing, really, about whatever you have been reading or thinking about that day or that week.