Jesmyn Ward Quotes

I miss my former teachers, John Hersey and James Alan McPherson. I would love to see either or both and ask what I could do to improve, to deepen my writing.

I've grown more and more appreciative of good writing, and I now really hope I can become a better and better writer.

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

What one's goal should be is just to become a better writer and to tell different kinds of stories.

I feel like I'm getting better at being a writer.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

Stephen King's 'On Writing' is probably the most useful writing book I've ever read.

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

But I think there are a set of experiences that turn a potential writer into a working writer, and then there are places in your life were you start to recognize what you want to do.

Other writers definitely influence my writing. What encourages me and inspires me is when I read a good book. It makes me want to be a better writer.

The single best piece of advice I give to aspiring writers is to always write about things that they know. I suggest that they write about people and places and events and conflicts they are familiar with. That way their writing will be real and hopefully readers will respond to it. I try to take my own advice.

I write what's given me to write.

I have learned many things in the 30 years that I have been writing.

I'm still learning my craft, and I've been writing since I was nine.

There is no motivation higher than being a good writer.

I didn't start really focusing on writing until I was 24.

I don't think I'm a brilliant writer, but I'm a good writer, and it's just so empowering to get involved.

Ultimately, you've got to have something to say, so a writer should continue learning things throughout life. But I don't think education makes one a writer.

Like most art forms, writing is part instinct and part craft. The craft part is the part that can be taught, and that can make a crucial difference to lots of writers.

I'm not as good a prose writer as I'd like to be, but I never aspired to that.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

If you want to be a good writer, be the best writer in the world. That's what I've done.

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

I think writing well takes a little bit of talent and an awful lot of work.