Patrick Ness Quotes

I hope the wonder of what happens to my characters never goes away. That yearning keeps me writing.

I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.

Like most writers, I just create because I have a story to tell, really.

David Simon is a brilliant writer, brilliant at being able to take what is ordinary and make it extraordinary.

My first love was reading, which inspired me to write.

It's a very dull thing to watch, a writer at work. So dull that whole casts of characters show up just to watch the boring writer writing.

See, what I don't like listening to is when writers go, 'And then the person cries.' 'Or the person does this.' It's there, but it's not the Bible. I wait and see what happens to me on the day.

I've always been drawn to writing for young readers. The books that I read growing up remain in my mind very strongly.

I love 'Sunday in the Park with George.' I saw that when I was just, just starting theater school, and I remember singing 'Finishing the Hat' or at least reading the lyrics to 'Finishing the Hat' and other songs from 'Sunday in the Park with George' to my mom to try to explain why I wanted to be an artist.

I'm always fascinated by why a person becomes a writer.

I might see something on TV and get inspired to write about it. I can't sit down and plan to write. It has to come to me in my head like someone telling me the words.

The deal is such that when I begin writing something, I open a door, and those characters come in, and then they won't leave, and so I live with them every day, all day. They are there with me when I'm driving my kids to school, when I'm standing in line at the grocery store.

I gave up writing children's books. I wanted to escape from them as I had once wanted to escape from 'Punch': as I have always wanted to escape. In vain.

Writing is such a good thing to do because you can't really get bored with it. If you're bored with writing, you're bored with life.

I am sure of this: that no one can write a book which children will like unless he write it for himself first.

As a writer, you look for inspiration wherever you can get it.

I really like to entertain myself in various ways when I'm writing.

When I write, I work off of a theme, an emotion, a narrative - thinking of it and then expounding on it.

I used to read about people who'd say, 'I dream my books, and then I write them down.' And I was like, 'Oh, please.'

I don't dream about the perfect script, though I check my mailbox every morning.

As long as there's a strong theme that I can identify with, that's what makes me interested in writing.

I liked the idea of being a writer more than I liked the idea of writing.

A novel usually begins, in my experience, with a thought or image that won't leave me alone.

I am not really into paintings, to be honest, but for me, the art I love is when I see singers putting their heart into their song, actors giving the performance of their lives, and books and movies that make me feel something I never thought I could; there's art in everything as long as it's made with soul.

I'm a lover of film and storytelling. I believe that I was put on earth to tell stories, and I'm not interested in telling the same stories over and over and over again.