Alan Garner Quotes

Writer's block is a myth. I never see the gardeners suffering from gardening block.

I don't think that writer's block exists really. I think that when you're trying to do something prematurely, it just won't come. Certain subjects just need time, as I've learned over and over again. You've got to wait before you write about them.

I don't believe in writer's block. There are good days when you're writing and less good days. I've learned that if it's not happening to walk away and return later. I doodle a lot and often get my best ideas with a pencil in my hand while I'm doodling. The problem is, sometimes I lose my doodles and that's bad!

An author who waits for the right 'mood' will soon find that 'moods' get fewer and fewer until they cease altogether.

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.

I never get writer's block, but I do have days where I crawl under the duvet.

Don't think about making art, just get it done.

If you're waiting for inspiration, you'll wait until you're dead.

I think everything has its place. So if the ideas or the fluidity isn't coming in writing, maybe it's related to ingestions.

I don't believe in writer's block. I don't know what that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I'm going to get through. It's just a matter of finding a way.

I did actually sit down with a blank sheet of paper once. I think the phone rang and that was the end of my literary career.

Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is an old crop rotation trick.

I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer's block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don't. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.

writers just kept on staring at nothing until they wrote something. Might be two minutes or two weeks.

I don't generally listen to music while working, but sometimes music can help me get past minor writer's block.

It's weird, because I don't feel prolific. I don't write anything for months at a time.

I go into my workroom seven mornings a week. There will only be one or two mornings a week where it seems to be going well, but to earn those days you have to go through slow, slodgy days where your mind feels like porridge.

If I wait for the genius to come, it just doesn't arrive.

A writer who isn't writing is asking for trouble.

I can't sit and twiddle my thumbs. I have to start writing even if it's miserable some days.

I always thought writer's block was something that prats used as an easy excuse for not doing any work.

I feel like I spend most of my time in a state of writer's block! When things do come out, they come out quickly.

I often feel like not writing! Sometimes I overcome it by just sitting there until writing happens. Sometimes I don't write, because books often need periods of percolation.

I think writer's block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out.

Writer's block? I've never heard of a plumber complain about plumber's block.