Will Self Quotes

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.

I never think that any writer can teach someone how to write.

I am always trying to write.

It really helped me as a writer to understand how other writers think.

I think you have to learn for yourself how to write. I'm slightly mystified by creative writing courses - God love them - because I can't understand how you can explain a process that I find so baffling.

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

I don't want to talk too much about the nitty-gritty of writing. It's rather like a pressure cooker with a certain amount of pressure in it - the more you let out, the less you cook.

I've been writing fiction probably since I was about 6 years old, so it's something that is second nature to me now. I just sit down and start writing. I don't sit down and start writing and it comes out perfectly - it's a process.

I find writing really difficult - definitely the most difficult of all the things I do.

I think what I like best is that when people give talks or workshops, it doesn't really matter what level you are as a writer - whether you are a beginner, or you've been around the block a bit; there's something that you can take away from every session.

Write. Enjoy writing. Then, and only then, worry about the business end of it. Start loving your hobby, and then you can't go too wrong.

I write constantly about everything.

If you're a writer, you're always working.

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.

Authors like reading. Go figure. So it's not surprising that we sometimes bog down in the research stage of new writing projects.

If you write really good material, the rest just falls into place. There's really no trick to it.

Our job, as writers is to do our jobs.

I never thought I was very good at developing material. I grew up at the BBC where they sent you scripts.

The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.

Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene.

Writing has to support itself.

Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven't got a theory and I haven't got a framework.

The best way to learn about writing is to study the work of other writers you admire.

I don't usually think of my writing as a 'challenge' because I enjoy the process so much. I suppose that's what's helped me to avoid 'writer's block' all these years.

I really hate to write.