Patricia MacLachlan Quotes

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

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

I was able to work out all sorts of attitudes to style and event and character, all of which affected the way I came to think about my own writing. I believe that all good writers are original.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

It's hard to read good fiction when I am writing, because if it is really good I catch myself sort of inadvertently imitating a great writer.

Other writers definitely influence my writing. What encourages me and inspires me is when I read a good book. It makes me want to be a better writer.

I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.

I tend to boycott all teenage reading while I'm trying to write my own stuff.

I spend a lot of time writing. I get inspiration from texts rather than images.

You have to go where the good writing is.

If you want to be a good writer, be the best writer in the world. That's what I've done.

I suppose if I was to have to pick a few, Ursula LeGuin would have to top the list. It was while reading her work that I decided I wanted to be an author.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

Read good books. Read bad books - and figure out why you don't like them. Then don't do it when you write. If you are a science fiction or fantasy writer, going to conventions and attending panels is very useful.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

I don't have traceable literary models because I haven't had great literary influences in my life.

I'm very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I've never really considered myself a writer.

The fun one can have writing books about books is limitless, to be honest.

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

I can't change overnight into a serious literary author. You can't compare apples to oranges. William Faulkner was a great literary genius. I am not.

Neophyte writers tend to believe that there is something magical about ideas and that if they can just get a hold of a good one, then their futures are ensured.

I write 'by the seat of my pants.' I love to do research. I am inspired by contemporary writers and contemporary events. I live in the real world.

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'm inspired by playwrights, novelists, poets: The value of language has been a lifelong passion of mine. I enjoy it. I'm good at it.

For me, as a beginning novelist, all other living writers form a control group for whom the world is a placebo.