Gay Talese Quotes

Occasionally it does hit me, the words on a page. And I still love doing that, as I have for the last 60 years.

Some people say, 'Write what you know.' My thing is, 'Write what scares you.'

I firmly believe that life is an 'and' proposition and not an 'or' one. If you really love something, you just have to try it. The worse that can happen is that you'll be told 'no.'

You have to be very brave in that first writing session.

I'm addicted to creating and writing.

When I get moved to write a story, I don't question the story. I dive right in, and I try to ignore the voices that are chattering away at me: 'You can't do that', 'You shouldn't do that'. I just sort of leap and take a chance and go for it.

Writing is the most important thing in my life - above marriage.

What I tell young writers is to find those things that you're so passionate about that your energy doesn't run away.

Go build it. If you really believe in something, you should just build it. If you love it, it won’t feel like work. It’s okay to drop out of college if you have an awesome idea.

Trust your imagination. Don't be afraid to fail. Write. Revise. Revise. Revise.

After five awful movies, I admitted failure and said I was not cut out to be an actor. But how many people get a chance to live their dream?

Anything that I write comes from the soul.

But if you really love to write and you really love to tell stories and you really love to draw, you just have to keep doing it no matter what anybody says.

Poetry was the first step, and from the age of 18, there was nothing else I wanted to do.

I've wanted to write ever since I've gotten into comics. I wrote little things for myself when I was doing mini-comics and things, before becoming a professional. But I just figure at some point or another, I've got to make the leap. I just have to do it.

If you're one of the hundreds of thousands of people out there toiling over your unpublished manuscript, trying to make your way across that vast ocean in a bathtub, I can only say this to you: keep paddling. Well, either that or start vlogging.

Anybody who's serious about their passion in life gets doors slammed in their face, literally and figuratively.

I will try to write books until I drop dead.

I had a job, I got ill, I left the job to get better, and while I was getting better, I wrote some stories. I sent them to some publishers and the fifth one who replied said they'd take them. Then they went bankrupt. Then that bankrupt publisher got bought by a bigger firm. Story: in the end is the beginning, and in the beginning is the end.

I started writing when I was 9 years old. I was like this weird kid who would just stay in my room, typing little funny magazines and drawing comic strips.

If you enjoy math and you write novels, it's very rare that you'll get a chance to put your math into a novel. I leapt at the chance.

I write what I'm interested in.

I want to keep publishing books, and writing and spreading my heartsong through the world.

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

Writing is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote for 20 years and published nothing before my first book.