Jeffrey Eugenides Quotes

I first tried a novel when I was 14. First finished one when I was 16. First started working on stuff that had a chance of being salable in my early 20s, then didn't write much fiction at all because I was in grad school.

I just loved storytelling. That's what I thought I would end up doing. I thought I would probably go to school and end up writing for a magazine or something.

Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

Ironically, writing a novel is not a way to sort out your confusion.

I always wanted to write. While I was on a long surf trip, supporting myself with various day jobs, I was working hard on a novel. My third novel, in fact.

I never get sick of writing my own stories because there's a certain comfort in knowing you will never run out of material. It's relaxing, actually, to write.

Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.

Reading stories is bad enough but writing them is worse.

I finish the book so I can see how it's going to end. I write that first sentence, and if it's the right first sentence, it leads to the right second sentence and three years later you have a 500-page manuscript, but it really is like going on a trip, going on a journey. It's a voyage.

The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know.

When I journal, I write about images that I've seen that I think might make good stories. I write about things that I hear that I think I can turn into a story. I write about the story that I'm working on and where I think it might go.

Write for pleasure and publish for money.

I think, if you want to grow a novelist, for that person to have a lot of boring time trying to entertain themselves is very important.

I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.

I'm writing. The pages are starting to stack up. My morale is improving the more I feel like a writer.

I want to write novels. I want to write stories. I want to do the stuff that I became a writer to do.

For someone who is starting out on developing their critical skills, just being aware of its existence is great: it can make the difference between trying to write a story around a cliche or an original idea, and better still, studying it can eventually clue you in on how to breathe new life into tired tropes.

I could name you a dozen superheroes whose powers I'd like to have. But if I could have any power in the world, it would be the power to read or watch a creative work and absorb the technical skill of the people who made it. Because then I could have even more fun writing. That's my core identity. I'm a writer. I just love telling stories.

I saw novelists as being admirable people and I thought... I thought... maybe, one day, I could be one of them.

Some people play the piano, some do Sudoku, some watch television, some people go out to dinner parties. I write books.

I really began to love to read while in high school, and my favorite authors were my heroes: J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut.

I began writing fictional stories and little screenplays when I was in fifth grade.

While I was in high school, I discovered and began writing science fiction.

When I want to read a novel, I write one.

I always wanted to write, ever since I was a kid. I started writing at the age of 11. All I wanted to do was finish my education and have my nights free for writing.