Robert Cormier Quotes

Anybody who tells you they're not scared when starting a new book project is a very good liar.

The joy of art is particularly sweet, though, because it carries with it the threat of rejection, of failure, and of missed connections. It's precisely the high-wire act of "this might not work" that makes original art worth doing.

Sometimes, when you're writing sentence by sentence, you're not really sure what footprints you're going to fall into, or what ghosts might appear.

I was nervous about writing Slow Regard.

I'm excited and terrified to write something new.

Art Gropes. It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself, waiting to pounce.

Writing is inherently scary.

A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.

It all has to do with art - writing, painting, things I've done for a long time but just never had enough time to pursue. I have poetry - things that are designed for songs, but they're always poems first.

As a writer, you live in permanent self-doubt; you're on permanent trial.

Each new film is like a trial. Before I step in front of the camera, I do not know whether I am going to fall or whether I am going to fly - and that is exactly the way I want it to stay.

I love writing. I've pursued it with a passion.

Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.

I don't really love writing. I don't love the feeling of starting a new file. But I love the feeling of overcoming and accomplishing.

I don't think I've ever frightened myself before when writing, but there were areas where there was terror, as though I was looking into somewhere that I didn't know existed before, and it frightened me.

My verses stand gawping a bit. I never get used to this. They've lived here long enough.

I've always been a writer. I hope to continue to write books until I can't anymore.

I hate to look at the stuff I've written and consider what it means or why I do it.

As a creative person, you have to keep going. There's no defined career path. There's no security.

Yes, I love my homes, I love to travel, I love my family, and I love doting on my new grandchildren. But you can only do so much of that. I don't go to lunch with friends. I don't join clubs. I don't have any big hobbies. I work. I come up with stories. I can't even imagine a life where I'm not sitting around, worried about my next book.

I'd advise all you songwriters out there, if you're getting into it for the business, go home and get a job digging ditches or something. Get a life. You'll learn a lot more, and you won't write a lot of rotten poetry.

If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're talking about it or thinking about it, I'm not so sure. Writing is ninety-eight percent work and two percent magic.

But it is the fear, not the writing that defeats me. Everything is not a masterpiece.

Writing ... is practically the only activity a person can do that is not competitive.

Write what you’re scared about.