Thomas McGuane Quotes

You write, hoping to write a good book; that's it.

I'm just going to write the best books I can.

The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is to write the book that you would want to read, and hope other people agree.

I don't think anyone is ever writing so that you can throw it away. You're always writing it to be something. Later, you decide whether it'll ever see the light of day. But at the moment of its writing, it's always meant to be something. So, to me, there's no practicing; there's only editing and publishing or not publishing.

I always knew I wanted to be a writer.

But, somewhere in there, I did have the thought that this really fits in with my thinking about what I wanted to do; with what has to be done by a writer in order to stay alive as a writer.

Write. Enjoy writing. Then, and only then, worry about the business end of it. Start loving your hobby, and then you can't go too wrong.

It is my desire to be a great writer. I know that I still have a mountain to climb to achieve that.

I always counsel aspiring novelists that passion is the most important quality for a writer to possess - technique can be taught, but that relentless desire to write has to come from within.

The first thing you have to understand is that I was not desperate to be a writer. I was never a closet writer filing away notes in a cupboard.

Understand, I had absolutely no interest in writing; I wanted to be a Writer.

When I write books, I've learned not to have any expectations that I'm going to change the world.

Once I started getting paid to be a writer and not having lots of other gross responsibilities, like making the puzzle or whatever, then my ambition changed, and I thought, 'Now I want to be a good writer.' And that became my ambition.

I always, always wanted to be a writer.

When I write, I try to capture one of those pivotal moments. If I succeed, I have shifted the reader's view of the world, just a little. The character is not the only one to experience change. That is my job, shifting perceptions, one story at a time. The trouble is, I don't like writing. But I love having written.

I've always wanted to be a writer. Ever since I learned to read, I've wanted to share stories with others the way my favorite writers shared their stories with me.

When I'm the one who sits down and looks at the blank page and writes it out all the way, then I'll call it my script.

And there are people who want to be writers because they love to write. And they care.

I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed.

It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.

I didn't do any writing seriously until I was in my mid-twenties. But I've never really thought of myself as doing anything else. I've always wanted to write.

Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.