Tom Stoppard Quotes

I'm a person who, when I set out to write, I write. It's just like when you set out to eat, you eat, or when you set out to sleep, you sleep. I don't do somersaults to write something. I just do it.

As a writer, I've always been somebody who's been productive and hustled hard.

My personal opinion is that, if you're a professional writer, that you do have quotas. So every day I do try to write 800-1,200 words. I don't always achieve it, and the reality is that a lot of the words I write will end up on the cutting-room floor.

Try to write at least 500 words a day. You may ditch 499 of them tomorrow, but you will still be moving forward.

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

The real writer is one who really writes. Talent is an invention like phlogiston after the fact of fire. Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved.

I write - and then I write some more.

Three hundred words in a day is not a lot. So much of it is thinking before writing. And then there's the cutting. But you do what you do and keep moving forward.

Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well.

My approach is to treat writing very much as a job.

Don't worry about never having time to write. Just write what you can in the time you do have and give yourself a big clap on the back, followed by a double latte and a blueberry muffin.

I'm not the most talented writer in the world. I know that. But I also know that I'm disciplined, that I work my butt off, and that I make myself write as much as I can. Writer's block is a luxury I can't afford. I'm a professional writer, which means that I put my butt in the chair each day, and I write. Simple as that.

I always was an early-morning or late-night writer. Early morning was my favorite; late night was because you had a deadline. And at four in the morning, you make up some of your most absurd jokes.

I've been able to write at least one book a year for 20 years, and I don't think I would've had that kind of drive if I hadn't come out of the journalism business.

I kind of like to write fast. It keeps the pacing up. And it keeps me off the streets.

A lot of people get writer's block, and I think you just have to show up for work, sit down, and be like, 'I'm here.' You have to stay confident and positive that you're going to write something.

Excessive speed and quantity are, like chattiness and digression, besetting sins of cyber-assisted authorship.

You have to write every day, and you have to write whether you feel like it or not.

I used to say when I was younger, 'I'm exhausted; writers can only write for four hours a day and that's done.' Now I find, as I'm getting older and I'm more aware of time, I can actually write all day.

It was my great problem to solve: how to write a book, you know. And after you write one, you have to write another to prove to yourself you can do it again.

I wrote 'Legends of the Fall' in nine days, but I had been thinking about it for a few years.

I'm not one of those deeper, ethereal writers. I'm just trying to get it done.

I love writing but don't get a huge amount of time to do it.

Producing 1,200 words every day, when you're already working a full-time job is a lot.

I must never write when I do not want to write.