Ben Fountain Quotes

If you're a writer, you're constantly doubting yourself.

If I think about the writers I love or might be influenced by, I can't write at all, so I pretend there aren't any.

I don't write well when I'm sitting there sweating about every single phrase.

Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.

For me, most of the anxiety and difficulty of writing takes place in the act of not writing. It's the procrastination, the thinking about writing that's difficult.

That's what makes writer's block so painful. You think the well has run dry, maybe somewhere in the heavens the tap has been turned off. That's beyond frightening.

The idea of writer's block or not having inspiration is totally terrifying to me.

Every day I wake up afraid that I won't be able to write, that today is the day it has left me.

I find it really hard to say anything coherent or interesting about the work I do.

I think I'm a good joke writer. I'm also very scared that the last joke I wrote is the last joke I'll ever write.

The fact is that blank pages inspire me with terror. What will I put on them? Will it be good enough? Will I have to throw it out?

The most terrifying thing in my life is a blank sheet of paper.

I'm afraid of coaching, of writer's classes, of writer's magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble - you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step.

I will probably write an hour a day and spend eight hours a day biting my knuckle and worrying about not writing.

Every single time I step into the studio, I say, 'Can I still do this? Do I still have it? Have I ever had it?' I suppose there's a good amount of self-loathing that goes into any form of artisanship.

I've never had a writer's block, but still I think: 'Is it going to happen this time?' You never know what you're going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.

I think every writer doubts themselves, every day. You procrastinate because you're afraid. You're always afraid it's not going to be as good as you want it to be. But, the key is overcoming fear.

For a long time I managed to think two things simultaneously, that I am actually a good playwright, and that the next time I write a play I will be revealed as someone who is no good at all.

Every single time I start to do a picture, without fail, I feel as if I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm terrified of switching the computer on because there are so many poems.

I'd be far too self-conscious and insecure if I suspected my editor might be a better novelist than I.

You know, sometimes I get moments of inspiration when I'm writing something and then the task seems so daunting that it just kind of scares me away.

'Writing' always means 'not writing' to me because I will do anything to put it off. I think this is mainly because writing anything down and then handing it over to a third party - especially in comedy - is such an exposing act that you naturally want to delay the process.

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.

Writers, at least writers of fiction, are always full of anxiety and worry.