Molly Antopol Quotes

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.

A writer is always, always searching, even against her will, against all her better instincts, for the thread of a story. Everything is fodder. Everything is fuel. You can feel it coming on like the tingling of a sore throat. The brain never stops struggling to reshape every experience and feeling into a coherent narrative.

For me, inspiration isn't a sort of spark which lights the fire of the story. It's more like a thread, one of many, which you can tease out of a story once it's written, if you feel so inclined.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

I knew I was a writer; I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know what to write.

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

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

My books start almost before I realise it. Once in a while, some accident causes an idea to rise to the surface and say: 'now.'

My aunt got me interested in journalism - she found an old typewriter, had it worked over, put it on the dining room table, gave me a stack of paper and said, 'Play like you're a writer.'

I'm very interested in writing - it just takes so much discipline, whether it's short stories or novels.

There's a mystery to writing, and you don't really know where most of it comes from.

I enjoy talking to groups who are interested in the writing process or the industry. I never teach - because truthfully, I don't know how it all works; it just does. Sort of magic-like. But I love to share my experiences and perspectives.

When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.

When you're writing a book, you don't really think about it critically. You don't want to know too well what you're doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it.

I've always said the hardest aspect of the job of being a writer is writing.

I write what's given me to write.

I wasn't sitting around years ago thinking, 'I really want to write a novel.'

I really just sat down to write. I mean, I did what most writers do when something happens that's overwhelming, fascinating, moving, all of that.

I don't take notes. I don't have any notebooks. I keep on trying to do that because it seems like a very writerly thing to do, but my mind doesn't work that way. I tend to get the idea for a novel in a big splash.

A lot of my ideas for books come from newspaper articles. But I don't like to be actively looking for ideas.

I never thought I was very good at developing material. I grew up at the BBC where they sent you scripts.

True confession time: I never know where a book is going. I get a gut feeling the story is there, then pursue it with the enthusiasm of a hunting tiger on a trail. If I knew where I was going, I'd get bored out of my mind and stop writing.

All of the most important lessons about writing I learned from my father. He never set out to teach me anything, it would just be something he said casually in conversation.

I'm a bore. I save all my energy for my characters.

I'm definitely a writer. I don't even know how to freestyle.