Liane Moriarty Quotes

For as long as writers have written, they've had second thoughts about their work.

My self-editing process is intense.

You always want to go out there with the best book possible, so I listen to what my editors say, and even if they don't know how to fix it, I always seem to find a way. 'Trust Your Eyes' is the best book I've written, and I don't know if I can do any better.

Almost every magazine piece I've ever written, I felt like I haven't done it justice, like it was just a gloss.

I am usually protective of my work, not showing it to anyone until it has been redrafted and polished.

Every word I write I suspect the next day.

I write really slowly, and my lines are really, really terrible all the time. It takes so long for me to get them to be where I won't be embarrassed to sing them, and then feel like they're great.

I'm slow by nature; even if I write something fast, I'll let it sit for a month and hem and haw over it.

I barely ever reread the chapter before posting, because I overthink things, and I feel like overediting or trying to use too many words can ruin the story.

I hate going back over what I've written. It makes me feel physically sick.

It drives me crazy to do readings of my books, because if I read anything I've written in the past, I'd like to almost rewrite everything. If I could, I'd completely rewrite Fargo Rock City, and every sentence would be just slightly different. In all likelihood, most of them wouldn't be any better. Some of them would just be changed back to whatever form they used to be, before I second-guessed myself the first time.

I edit as I write. I revise endlessly. I don't go forward until I know that what I've written is as good as I can make it.

I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day to two years-or longer.

When a writer becomes a reader of his or her own work, a lot can go wrong. It's like do-it-yourself dentistry.

I once read Updike after writing a first draft, and I wanted to put my own book on the fire. I've since learned to read utter crap while I'm writing: pulp is the thing.

I don't do rewrites. I put all the pages in a pile next to the typewriter.

I am never really surprised at the way my books take shape. They are just not as perfect as I'd like them to be.

I always read what I write out loud, and I did that long before any radio thing. My editor finds that unusual.

My stories are never quite good enough.

I'm fairly competant as a director and actor, but I am Mr. Neurotic as a writer. I just don't have enough confidence in my abilities to take criticism well. I take it personally. Start with 'It's a masterpiece,' and then tell me what you think could be changed.

The whole excitement for writing anything is quite intense. And for a day or two, you think you've done everything extremely well. The problems start on the third day, and continues for the rest of your life.

I read what I write over and over and make corrections and improvements, until I reach the conclusion that the material deserves to stand on its own.

I find the most difficult part of writing is to get it down initially because what you have written is usually so terrible that it's disheartening; you don't want to go on. That's what I think is hard - the discouragement that comes from seeing what you have done.

Confidence is highly overrated when it comes to creating literature. A writer who is overly confident will not engage in the struggle to get it exactly right on the page - but rather, will assume that she's getting it right without the struggle.

When writing isn't going well-then the bad thing about being a writer is that I also have the freedom and flexibility to do something badly, and no one else can fix it for me.