Amor Towles Quotes

I knew I was a writer; I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know what to write.

It was my great problem to solve: how to write a book, you know. And after you write one, you have to write another to prove to yourself you can do it again.

It took me a long time to accept that I was a writer.

Being an artist doesn't mean that you're a good artist. That was the bargain I first made with myself: I'd say, I'm an artist, but I'm not really very good.

In college, I had a lot of friends who were writers and wanted to be writers and I felt intimidated by it. I just didn't know if I had any gift or voice and I had no confidence about it.

Most so-called writers keep writing and writing with the hope, some day, to find something to say.

I'm just lucky to have great parents. My sister's an actress. My brother's a musician. I found it hard growing up in such a... creatively driven family. I wanted to have this thing to create, myself.

I'm a writer; it's not just what I do, but who I am.

I still haven't made a film that defines who I am.

At a certain point in the writing of any book, you become absolutely certain that it's terrible and is only getting more terrible with every word you write. This is normal. You just have to keep going, push your way through, and have faith that, through practice and experience and determination, you will get to the end.

The problem turned out to be that I never was that kind of an artist.

I always wanted to be a writer. In the beginning, I thought I had to rewrite 'Gone with the Wind,' but eventually, I found my way and realized that wasn't me.

With 'Free Agent Nation,' I was figuring out how to write a book along with writing the book. Now I think I've kind of, sort of figured out how to write a book a little bit better. But the process remains not that different - slow; laborious; tiny, incremental progress each day, punctuated by feelings of despair and self-loathing.

Writing is about confidence and wondering what the point of anything is.

I really feel like I honed in on a sound and a style of writing that best fits me.

I wish I could think of a suitable name for the kind of writing I do.

My identity is based around being a writer. I can't not write. It's a compulsion.

Some days I feel good about my work, and sometimes I feel I've never written anything worthwhile. That's par for the course.

I've never thought of myself as a writer. I still don't, despite all the writing I've done.

I've heard writers talk about "discovering a voice," but for me that wasn't a problem. There were so many voices that I didn't know where to start.

I'm terribly afraid of failure. When your identity is wrapped up in writing and you've written something that doesn't work, it's a tough pill to swallow.

Nobody tells young writers it's okay if you're not very good, you'll get better. So I just thought I'm not very good, so I should try to do every other thing besides writing. That's how I ended up being a hitchhiker, a world traveler, and a mathematician.

What obsesses a writer starting out on a lifetime's work is the panic-stricken search for a voice of his own.

I have no idea! I have been writing for 35 years and from the beginning up to now the situation's almost the same. I'm kind of an ugly duckling. Always the duckling, never the swan.