Ben Fountain Quotes

Writing is hard work. But if you want to become a writer you will become one. Nothing will stop you.

If you can quit, then quit. If you can't quit, you're a writer.

When I want to read something nice, I sit down and write it myself.

It's okay to embark on writing because you think it will get you love. At least it gets you going, but it doesn't last. After a while you realize that no one cares that much. Then you find another reason: money. You can dream on that one while the bills pile up. Then you think: "Well, I'm the sensitive type. I have to express myself." Do me a favor. Don't be so sensitive. Be tough. It will get you further along when you get rejected. Finally, you just do it because you happen to like it.

Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

The biggest pitfall to avoid is not writing. Not writing is really, really easy to do, especially if you're a young writer. The hope that elves will come in the night and finish it for you, is a very common one to have. That is my main recommendation - you have to write, and you have to finish what you write and beyond that, it's all detail.

If you want to write, you write. Talent is simply not enough.

Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. If she doesn’t show up invited, eventually she just shows up

To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone - just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again, and once more, and over and over...

What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? Writing requires you make sacrifices. Be prepared to work hard to be a writer.

Better that you should take the chance of trying something that is close to your heart, you think is what you want to write, and if they do not publish it, put it in your drawer. But maybe another day will come and you will find a place to put that.

I think I'm able to do so much because writing is what I love to do. So, often when I have free time, I choose to write and edit.

It's easy to get discouraged; just keep writing because you love to do it, and you'll keep improving.

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

What I tell young writers is to find those things that you're so passionate about that your energy doesn't run away.

If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn't wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.

I want to write. I have always wanted to write. I do not care it I am not good at it. I just want to try.

If you write a hundred short stories and they're all bad, that doesn't mean you've failed. You fail only if you stop writing.

Writing is grunt work - you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith... talent is the smallest part of it.

When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "One word at a time," and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time. But I've read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope.

There have been years where I've had to take a real job and I wrote during slow times and lunches. I think never forgetting how lucky I am to be able to do something I love has really fueled me.

There is no trick to it. If you like to write and want to write, you write, no matter where you are or what else you are doing or whether anyone pays any heed.

Finish the day's writing when you still want to continue.

I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped.

I am a person of high energy. That, and I sit down and I write when I get an idea - I put other things aside.