John Sayles Quotes

I am the product of Denny O'Neil in many ways, I carry forth a lot of what Denny instilled in me.

I think writers are observers and watchers. We always have our ears open and eyes open, so I might see something in everyday life that inspires me. And I think that's probably more than anything else. Everyday life is where I get my inspiration.

The move to creating stories was a natural progression for me, but the most pivotal time was probably in 6th grade: That year, a friend introduced me to the stories of Ray Bradbury, and a student teacher introduced me to creative writing.

I don't actually have a one wellspring of inspiration. Though I'm most often inspired while reading - both fiction and nonfiction.

If the story is good enough, if it's imaginative enough, if it's moving enough it is going to reach deeper than the level of sheer information and change somebody's life two degrees. That is an enormous achievement.

One thing I always did in my career was writing. I always was writing. I was trying to create things. For myself, for other people.

If someone had told me in high school that one day I'd write an historical novel, I would have rolled my eyes.

As a younger person, I was obsessed with Ray Bradbury, and I think his stories did more to shape me as a storyteller than anybody else - even though, when I read them now, a lot of them seem overly sentimental. But that's probably the writer that I've thought about the most, even though I don't necessarily like a lot of his work.

I went through a big Kurt Vonnegut phase. But the writers who made me decide at a very early age that this is probably something I wanted to do were Stephen King and Douglas Adams, when I was probably, like, ten years old.

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

Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

I tell my writing students that everything is material; just pay attention.

I prefer writing originals.

I don't stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.

I became a copy boy. Not for long. I started writing stories.

When I decide to write a story, I don't think too much about what I want it to be, I just let things come naturally and this is how it turns out. It's just how my subconscious works.

One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they're just infested with lots of stuff.

Everyone has early fiction fantasies, but it wasn't until my second child Betsy was born that I allowed the urge to write a novel bubble up.

I'm one of the lucky writers: plots come easily to me.

English fiction was something I loved growing up, and it changed my life - it changed the trajectory of my life.

The characters in my stories, whether historical or fictional, usually prove to be a compilation of influences taken from differing sources, but never drawn from one model.

Books stay with me and have shaped me and made huge impacts on my life.

Basically, I just write whatever story grabs me rather than considering the genre.

I think that writers of literary fiction would do well to read more books for children.