J. B. Priestley Quotes

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

You have your brains, but it's energy and desire that make you write a book.

Don't wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.

An author who waits for the right 'mood' will soon find that 'moods' get fewer and fewer until they cease altogether.

You won't make a living writing until you learn to write when you don't want to.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

I'm a writer, not a professional runner. It's fun and it helps me write. I need powerful concentration.

On a good day I write, all day.

I'm afraid of only two things: being lazy and being cowardly. I get up early in the morning and go to work. I love to write.

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 think I'm less disciplined than a lot of other people, I'm afraid, but on the other hand, I've written a lot of books.

I write fifteen hours a day, stopping at Oprah-o'clock.

I'm always trying. Between every book, I think, 'Well now, it's time to get down to the serious stuff.'

I really do love working. There's no day where I don't want to write.

If what needs to get done is going to get done, then I can't screw around with the luxury of writing rituals or waiting for pristine writing conditions to magically materialize.

I tend to have a hard time working on pieces long before they're due. That's why I think the fact that I write a column is really good for me - the column has to be done, and there's no getting around it.

Sometimes I find it too hot to run, and sometimes too cold. Or too cloudy. But I still go running. I know that if I didn't go running, I wouldn't go the next day either. It's not in human nature to take unnecessary burdens upon oneself, so one's body soon becomes disaccustomed. It mustn't do that. It's the same with writing. I write every day so that my mind doesn't become disaccustomed.

I don't wait for inspiration. I'm not, in fact, quite sure what inspiration is, but I'm sure that if it is going to turn up, my having started work is the precondition of its arrival.

Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.

Shut up and write anyway. Don't use anything as an excuse.

I'm not a big believer in disciplined writers. What does discipline mean? The writer who forces himself to sit down and write for seven hours every day might be wasting those seven hours if he's not in the mood and doesn't feel the juice. I don't think discipline equals creativity.

When I visit schools and talk to students about writing, I give them one word of advice and I give it to them quickly and loudly-FINISH! Starting something is easier than finishing it. You must have discipline to go from a few sentences, to a few paragraphs, to a piece of writing that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Finishing something bridges the difference between someone who has talent and one who does not. My best advice? Apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair-and finish. FINISH!

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

If you let conditions stop you from working, they'll always stop you.

Learn to write when you would rather sleep. Learn to exercise this gift of language when no conscious portion of your wits can vibrate anything but worry. Learn to write so, my son, and you can call yourself a writer.