Zadie Smith Quotes

I'm always writing. A friend of mine once said, 'You avoid re-writing by writing.' Which is kind of a good point, because re-writing seems to be mostly about craft, and writing is just, like, getting out your passion on a piece of paper.

I would say, number one, don't worry about getting published. Just write. Number two, just write. Three is make sure you read.

I'm constantly creating and writing.

Writing tips are like mini skirts. Sometimes they fit perfectly, sometimes they make you cry, and sometimes you can reuse the material and sew yourself a pillow or something.

You become a great writer by writing.

I write. This is what I do. My job is to sit down with my vocabulary, select words, and decide what order they should be placed in an attempt to keep someone's attention and perhaps provide them with a laugh or two along the way.

Sometimes I write less than I'd like but do research. Other times, editor's notes or a copy-edited manuscript or page proofs for a forthcoming novel mean that I need to put my attentions elsewhere for a day or two, but I always come back to writing.

Every really good book was written a little at a time, over time, in tremendous confusion and doubt.

I had novels to write, so I wrote them.

And I think a good writer's gonna make it interesting. From the first paragraph it will all be interesting. Just work at it and work at it and work at it.

Don't keep rewriting and polishing something if it isn't setting the world on fire: start something new instead and consider the earlier story a learning experience.

I worked with several writers at the University of Michigan: Nicholas Delbanco, Peter Ho Davies, Eileen Pollack, Laura Kasischke, and Thomas Lynch, who told me the same thing over and over again: Persist. Read, write, and improve: tell your stories.

That's the secret to anything we write. You have to bring your experience to it. Otherwise, how do you expect anyone else to connect to it?

When you are a writer, the assist-to-turnover ratio... there are a lot more turnovers than assists.

The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

Read and write with a sensitive ear. The craft of writing is very important. Practice the craft.

As a writer, one is busy with archaeology.

I've always liked new writing.

You have to have heart's passion to write a novel.

Write every day, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later.

Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer.

I have friends who are capable of writing a very rough draft and then going back and embroidering - they're sort of the cathedral builders of fiction. I never really know what I'm doing, and all my pleasure's on the level of the line.

It's my job to write the best book I can each month and hand my scripts in. Everything else is beyond my control.

I want to have new challenges and write new crazy books because I think it makes me a better writer to be insecure and try new things.