Paula McLain Quotes

The best person to write for is yourself—and what better place to start than in a journal.

A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.

I had the opportunity to do what I enjoy.

I'm generally a very happy guy because I'm doing what I want. I'm willing to tell you that there are people who are much better than I am in writing. I don't have to be the fastest gun in the West.

I'm absolutely doing what I enjoy.

I am happy with the roles I play.

I don't think I constantly have to be on a promotional spree or be seen in the newspapers every day or even be part of social parties and film gangs. I'm having my own set of journey, and I am happy with it because I don't want to be like everybody.

We should all just do what makes us happy and be open.

I've always kept a journal and brought storytelling into my teaching.

I've kept a diary since I was seven years old, and I still write in mine.

Life will go on. I suppose the aura of the Nobel is such that my life will change, but I don't think I'm going to let it change much. You understand, I'm used to a quiet life.

Write a true, careless, slovenly impulsive, honest diary every day of your life.

They think I’m simpleminded because I seem to be happy. Why shouldn’t I be happy? I have everything I ever wanted and more. Maybe I am simpleminded. Maybe that’s the key: simple.

I've written all that I've wanted to write to date.

Taking the time to write in our lives gives us the time of our lives. As we describe our environments, we begin to savor them. Even the most rushed and pell-mell life begins to take on the patina of being cherished.

I kept a diary as a teenager but I never would have shared it with anyone. Still, I think it's very good practice to write things down.

A simple life is its own reward.

I advise writing to oneself. If you don't want to read it, nobody else is going to read it.

We need to develop a sense of sufficiency to be happy.

My writing life is pretty simple - I try to work every day, almost always in the mornings - and I can only write fiction effectively for about three or at the most four hours. No big mysteries, I just sit down and try to advance the cause a little bit every day.

You're going to write straight and simple and good now. That's the start.''What if I'm not straight and simple and good? Do you think I can write that way?''Write how you are but make it straight.

I am ashamed every day, and more ashamed the next. But I will spend the rest of my life in this living space writing these notes, this journal, recording my acts and reflections, finding some honor, some worth at the bottom of things. I want ten thousand pages that will stop the world.

Just write every day of your life. Read intensely.

As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.

I might say: if the place I want to get to could only be reached by way of a ladder, I would give up trying to get there. For the place I really have to get to is a place I must already be at now. Anything that I might reach by climbing a ladder does not interest me.