Chinua Achebe Quotes

I wanted to write stories for myself. At first it was purely an aesthetic thing about craft. I just wanted to become good at the art of something. And writing was very private.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

I am, in some sense, a writer. Even though I kinda downplay the word thing, I do enjoy writing sometimes.

I'm not sure if I always wanted to be a writer, but I was always writing.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper.

You write about what you know, and you write about what you want to know.

I want to write more, because I think I've got a story to tell.

The process of writing a novel begins with a pang, a moment of recognition, and a situation, a character, or something you read in a paper, that seems to go off, like a solar flare inside your head.

I enjoy writing. I enjoy that kind of process.

I like being a writer.

When I started writing fiction, I knew how good it was immediately.

I've been writing, in one way or another, for as long as I can remember.

Writing is what I do. It's what makes me tick.

I must say, it was a lot easier writing novels than I thought it would be. I think it's because I'm a novelist at heart, and it took me a while to figure that out.

Writing gave me a life.

That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader.

I think that I have every right to write a book. I think I'm interesting. I have perspective about me.

I am a writer. It's like a third arm to me.

Writing will remain a passion project.

I enjoy it too much - even if I knew I'd never get a book published, I would still write. I enjoy the experience of getting thoughts and ideas and plots and characters organised into this narrative framework.

I'm writing a book and working on my one-woman show, Learning To Be Human.

I feel like writing a book there's always a version in your head that's an amazing version, but then you write the version that you can write.

A lot of banging in the head has built up over the decades, and for my own sanity, I needed to write. I wanted to see if I could tell an honest, organic story about characters that interest me.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.

I knew I was a writer; I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know what to write.