James E. Gunn Quotes

It is easy to club people together, but there are bound to be influences of authors you've read. I grew up reading fast paced authors such as Sidney Sheldon and Jeffrey Archer, but to say I'm one of them isn't true; my style is intrinsically my own.

I love to write. I used to be a math teacher. And I like the idea that other people could write about the same subjects, but no one would write it just the way I do. It's very individual: a child could write the same story as somebody else, but it wouldn't come out the same.

I think that I've just kind of found my niche, if that makes sense. I still write the same, but I feel like I've found what separates me, and I always try to stay in that when I write. It took me a long time to discover that, so I try to be protective.

I think you can't help but write in your own voice.

I would like to be able to write in my own voice.

A baby writer should take inspiration from her predecessors but also find ways to tell her own stories in her own way.

It’s so important to create in your own voice, to hold onto what makes you unique, and have faith in your vision.

I do not believe in pure idioms. I think there is naturally a desire, for whoever speaks or writes, to sign in an idiomatic, irreplaceable manner.

Writing is not a competitive sport. Everyone that writes has his or her own voice.

Write in a disciplined manner, but write in a way that is natural to the individual's thought processes.

The most important thing when starting out with essay writing is to find a voice with which you're comfortable. You need to find a persona that is very much like you, but slightly caricatured.

One of the most challenging aspects of writing a memoir is finding your own voice, and you should be very careful about being influenced by someone else's voice.

The whole point in developing your own style is to find your own voice.

Bernard Shaw said that when you copy yourself, you know you've got style. And I feel that if you can write like you write, then you are true to yourself. And it's not an easy thing to do - it's a disgustingly difficult thing to do.

I kind of always wanted my own music to just sound like, like me, I suppose, like if I was music it would be the music I make, I think.

Write for yourself, not for a perceived audience. If you do, you'll mostly fall flat on your face, because it's impossible to judge what people want. And you have to read. That's how you learn what is good writing and what is bad. Then the main thing is application. It's hard work.

I've been writing for people long enough to know that it has got to feel comfortable coming out of their mouths, especially when you're doing something that is first person and is so near and dear to you.

I thought I was clever enough to write as well as these people and I didn't realize that there is something called originality and your own voice.

Fiction is the thing I esteem most in my own work; I feel that, even if it's no good, only I could have written those books.

Do not copy my style! The first rule of writing is write about what you know, not what you think you know. So, think about what you've done in your life and write about that.

You develop a voice and a process that's unique to yourself.

TV is all about learning to write in someone else's voice, so if you do it long enough without selling your own project, they assume you don't have your own voice; you're just a good mimic.

Sometimes you find your voice by trying to write like people, and sometimes you find it by trying to write unlike people.

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

You have to write your own story, your own graph and rhythm.