Eleanor Catton Quotes

I believe I'm a better writer now than I was when I started. I'm grateful that I had good guidance because you don't make it in this business without good editors and a lot of support from your publishers.

I think what I like best is that when people give talks or workshops, it doesn't really matter what level you are as a writer - whether you are a beginner, or you've been around the block a bit; there's something that you can take away from every session.

Most people won't realize that writing is a craft. You have to take your apprenticeship in it like anything else.

Writing can't be taught.

I am not a trained writer.

I am writing things on my own, but I really believe co-writing makes you a better writer.

The CWC is a professional organization for professional writers. Non-published writers are welcome as associate members.

Every story I write is different. Some are hard. Some aren't. 'Chronicle' was tremendously easy. I have a hard time comparing my process on different things, but I will say this: The more you write, the better you get at it. That's one of the few things that's markedly true.

I've taken every writing class I've had available. I took classes in high school, and I took English and writing classes in community college, but I dropped out of college. I also attended a local writing workshop two years ago.

I get so used to working with writers that my prime occupation is development.

I'm very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I've never really considered myself a writer.

Writers are so important.

I love writers. All of my best friends are writers.

I have grown in my writing and I care about it now and I know how important it is to write stuff.

Unfortunately, there's still a lot of beginning writers who think you can just write your first draft and hand it in.

I find it both fascinating and disconcerting when I discover yet another person who believes that writing can't be taught. Frankly, I don't understand this point of view.

People say you can't teach writing, but I think that's nonsense.

It's not a problem to be surrounded by other writers if that's the craft that you're doing. I suppose if you get obsessed with the notion of being a writer more than the writing itself, that would be bad. But I live near really smart, thoughtful people who take writing very seriously, and I can meet them for breakfast and talk books.

If you're young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship.

I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway.

The Longstockings are eight children's and young adult writers. We all came out of the New School MFA program, and we meet regularly to critique each other's work.

When I began to be published, people got the idea that I should 'teach writing,' which I have no idea how to do and don't really believe in.

With each book, you get better as a writer. There is no back door to the industry. Read in the genre you want to write, as the more you read, the better you will get as an author.

One of the things I learnt over the years is that there is a craft to writing, like there is a craft to acting. I hadn't done my apprenticeship as a writer. I did try to be a writer for hire but I'm not any good at it.

I spent several years acquiring the obsessive, day-to-day discipline that's needed if you want to write professionally, then several more, highly valuable years studying fiction writing at the University of Iowa.