Anne Enright Quotes

I don't need music to write, but sometimes I put music on. I don't need special clothes or even my own equipment.

Not intending to be funny: I sit at the keyboard, put my fingers on the keys and go. To me, it's the real secret of writing. Put yourself in front of the screen or the blank sheet of paper and get to work.

I used to get up and write every day, even if I wasn't working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I'm in the middle of, I do that, but when I'm not, time can go by when I'm not writing at all.

I write every day. I don't have a writing schedule. I write when I feel like it. Fortunately, I feel like it all the time. I am writing for hours. I do like to write in the morning. I start after breakfast, like 9 o'clock, and I'll write till lunch, about 1. And after lunch, I just have fun.

Anything that keeps you happy and writing is part of my writing ritual: I like music, so I tend to have it playing in the background. But if I'm interested, I can write in an airport waiting areas.

Don't force yourself to write. Some people can write a novel in a few months, whereas for others it can take over a year. I'm lucky to be one of the former - but, even so, if I'm not in the mood to write, I won't. I'll go off, do something else and come back to it when I'm ready.

I'm not one of those writers I learned about who get up in the morning, put a piece of paper in their typewriter machine and start writing. That I've never understood.

Being a writer involves writing. You've got to commit to sitting down and writing instead of Xbox or Netflix.

I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write.

I don't write listening to music, and in a way it seems silly that any writer should have to explain why not, as it's possibly no different from saying you don't eat gourmet dinners or play tennis while you're at the keyboard.

I just write from dawn to dusk.

The main thing about writing is... writing. Sitting your butt down in the chair and doing the work.

For any writers at all, read everything you can and then put your butt in the chair and write. That's all there is to it.

I've always kind of wrote when I wanted to. Once I get the idea in my head and get it outlined out, I usually just sit and write until it's done.

To write, I think one must sit in one place and be bored. Boredom is a very good state for writers to be. Things cook away in your head when you're bored, and suddenly one day, you have a book or a germ of a book.

But the ultimate lesson is just sit down and write. That's all.

My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day.

If you love something - and there are things that I love - you do want more and more and more of it, but that's not the way to produce good work. So as an author, I need to write what I need to write.

I do not go down and sit in front of the computer and make myself write; that's not my style.

Decide where and when you want to write. I like space, and silence is an inspiration to me.

I write all the time, whether I feel like it or not. I never get inspired unless I'm already writing.

For me, the optimum circumstances for writing a book are those of stultifying routine.

Some writers sit down every day for two or three hours, at least, to write, whether they are in the mood or not. Others wait for inspiration.

People imagine that there are rituals, like lighting candles or sacrificing chickens. They really just want to know what the magic formula is for writing. I inevitably disappoint them by saying you just put your butt in the chair, and you write 500 words a day, and then you get up and repeat it the next morning.

People always ask, 'How do you write so many books?' And I say, I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week.