Anthony Bourdain Quotes

If you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.

There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I'm greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed.

Sometimes I write less than I'd like but do research. Other times, editor's notes or a copy-edited manuscript or page proofs for a forthcoming novel mean that I need to put my attentions elsewhere for a day or two, but I always come back to writing.

As a writer, you have to believe you're one of the best writers in the world. To sit down every day at the typewriter filled with self-doubt is not a good idea.

I always say that I'll have a go and see whether the poem works and if it does, then fine.

I'm not really worried about writer's block.

I try to only work on the screenplays for a few hours a day when I'm in my most voluble mood, just sort of writing whatever comes into my head. It's a very freeing thing.

Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on.

Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceeding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in . . . The edit.

During the day, if I don't have any other commitments, I'm usually at my desk writing, revising, or researching anywhere from four to six hours.

You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.

When I sit down to write, I just let the goose out of the bottle.

You become a great writer by writing.

I write a chapter, then edit it and edit it and edit it and edit it. I don't think we mine creativity from within. It's bestowed from on high, from God.

As a writer, you need a strong sense of self-belief. And when it comes to writing, I've always had that.

I have reached the point where I know that as long as I sit down to write, the ideas will come. What they will be, I don't know.

I revise obsessively. It's important to me to have a clean page.

At night I can write for hours.

If I've written five pages by hand, out of those five pages, one page might be worth saving. The rest is crap. I have to throw it away. It's like I need eight hours to do two hours' work.

I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but I often do when I'm reworking, editing or when I need to relax.

My self-editing process is intense.

I don't do rewrites. I put all the pages in a pile next to the typewriter.

People might be surprised to know how much I throw away. For every page I publish, I throw 10 pages away.

When I'm writing, I write every day. It's lovely when that's happening. One day dovetailing into the next. Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is.

In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it.